Neo Estraneo Famiglia
by doubleyy
Summary: Both dying and being reborn is nothing new for me, but being reborn as an experiment is new... And meeting lookalikes? This life is certainly something... new.
1. Chapter 1

Neo Estraneo Famiglia

Prologue

Death is nothing new for me, in fact I've died many times already. And every single time I'm reborn, again and again. It is nothing new, and yet I can't seem to get used to it. Both to dying and being reborn, of course dying hurts… sometimes, but being reborn _always _makes me feel exhausted.

Anyways I was dying, I was coughing up the blood left in my lungs and I my wounds were bleeding. Actually I was sure that I would bleed to death in no time. I was tired…

"Hang on … damn it, DON'T CLOSE YOUR EYES" someone shouted. I turned my head to see my _older brother_ who was desperately trying to heal me. But it was too late, even _his_ sun flames wouldn't be able to help me anymore.

"So..rry" I coughed. I tried to smile, but I was sure that my face wasn't as gentle as I intended as my _brother _looked even more desperate than before. Because of my blood loss I couldn't think straight… as my last thought before I died was: I had died more painful deaths before…

…

When I finally opened my eyes in my new life I was exhausted… and shocked. Were babies supposed to see this well? The room was blindingly white, even in the dim light, and I was surrounded by people in slightly bloody lab coats. I immediately dubbed them: mad scientists.

"We did it" some mad scientists shouted with glee in their voices.

"_Subject 00_ is finally completed, it took ages but it _is _alive!" another continued.

Subject 00… what? Wait _what_? Who… _me_? I tried to move my head to see more of my surroundings. Bad idea. Immediately I became dizzy and exhaustion caught up with me as my eyelids felt heavy. Damn it…

"Finally…..Estreango…..subject 00...experiments…start" was all I could hear before my consciousness wandered off. Just _what _was happening?

Hmm? What is that?

…

The illusions that he made to escape reality were worse than reality. It was dark, everything was black. The smell was weird like reality, like medicine. And the sound… the screams were terrifying. Every time he was terrified, afraid of what would happen when the owners of the screams would reach him. What they would do to him and what would happen If he couldn't run away. But they never reached him, instead it was like they were running away from _him._ Something stirred and the young boy screamed. He buried his face in his hands as he failed to run.

"Who is there!" he screamed terrified.

_Just why are you afraid? _A voice asked. The boy almost looked up in surprise. The words just flowed into his head, even if he could understand the words, he couldn't hear a voice. And the words felt gentle unlike the screams… the screams that now disappeared. "it..it is dark" he muttered.

_Is it? _The words asked. The boy noticed something change in his illusion and he looked up in surprise. The darkness was now replaced by a sunset on a cliff. _Beautiful isn't it? _The voice asked. But the boy didn't answer, he tensed up. How did the illusion change? Who was talking, or what? As the sunlight reached his face he heard a gasp, or at least he noticed the words which resembled gasping.

_DAEMON DID YOU SHRINK?!_

**Hey guys, doubleyy here **

**I just want to say that this is my first fanfiction and English is NOT my native language (so expect some mistakes). And I hope that my Ideas won't be too cliché, but don't be afraid to point that out. I don't know if I will continue this story, but if I do I will do my best to update (though I'm pretty lazy and most of the time I **_**will**_** forget the story…). Anyways thanks for reading and please review **

**Doubleyy out**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, doubleyy here **

**I noticed that I forgot the disclaimer last chapter so here it is:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own KHR! **

Chapter 1: kufufufu

"DAEMON DID YOU SHRINK?!" I gasped. I remembered the young man from one of my past lives. An arrogant and annoying bastard that had the title 'childhood friend'. I do still remember the good times when I pranked him though. Those were good times… ahem back to the topic.

The young boy looked around, looking for something, someone, _me. _But he couldn't see me, of course he couldn't. I took over the illusion and changed it for the better if you ask me. Ahem straying from the topic again.

I looked better at the boy… he wasn't daemon. Of course… the same pineapple hairstyle, look alike face, the same terrified expression from when he younger and when this prank… ahem _anyways_, even with the similarities he is clearly another person. He is definitely younger (around 4 or 5 years old), his hairstyle is slightly different and his eye colour… eye colours were a bit different. Or at least one of them. "heterochromia?" I wondered out loud.

"Who is there?" the boy asked a bit more confident than before, but I could still hear the fear in his voice.

"kufufufu, just a stranger passing by." I answered in an amused tune, but he wasn't satisfied with this answer.

"D…don't joke around!" he shouted. His voice echoed in the illusion, making the image shake a little. Hmm _he has potential_. The sun was almost gone when I answered.

"I don't know…" the boy shook his head

"I don't believe you!" he shouted angrily "You must be a spy from the Estraneo Famiglia, otherwise you wouldn't be able to invade my illusion!" _impressive _I thought as the illusion shook again.

"kufufufu, better believe me boy. I don't know _who_ I am (yet)_, _but I _do _know that some mad scientists call me subject 00. So I think that is _what _I am. And stop looking around boy, you won't be seeing me." The boy finally stopped looking for me and looked at the last rays of the sun instead.

"So… are you experimented on too?" he asked softly. O the irony, I wasn't experimented on… yet. It was worse: I am the experiment, though I expect them to experiment on me soon enough.

"How did you invade my illusion anyways?" the boy asked before I could answer. "And _what_ is this place?" I smiled at the questions that I could answer, not that he could see it though.

"This is a cliff somewhere in Italy, I don't know if it still exists but this was one of my favourite places to be in. And about the illusion…" I looked up to the night sky and smiled as I asked: "Shall I teach you?"

…

When I woke up in a different room, the _excited_ mad scientists were writing stuff on paper while they looked no _observed _me from behind the window. I tried to move… it was surprisingly easy. I noticed that not only my eyesight was extraordinary for a baby but my control of my body too. I raised my hands to look at them while I sat up. Open, close, raise one finger, two fingers, make a peace sign, clap hands… it was too easy. I looked up from my hands and saw the mad scientists who had even _more excited_ expressions while they were writing _even faster_ than before. They were starting to scare me a little. For the first time I looked around in the room. White, why must everything be blindingly white… at least the light was dim otherwise my eyes would hurt. White floor, white walls, white coated scientists behind the glass, white operation table where I'm sitting on, silver door and a man in black who was guarding the door. The said man looked at me with a complex expression, concern, pity, fear and disgust. If I didn't remember my past life's I would have been surprised at how many emotions could be shown in someone's face.

_Should I jump of the table?_ I wondered. I considered my other options… I had none. So I jumped and landed safely on my feet. _Strange… _I shouldn't be able to crawl yet at this age, so _how_ am I standing? I tried to walk too, bingo. _How the hell am I able to walk at this age_ I thought as I looked through the window again… and sweat dropped at the sight of the mad scientists who almost had stars in their eyes of excitement. The guard was more nervous now, I noticed as I turned my head again to see him. Hmm _he is not ugly… _bad thoughts! _Bad thoughts_! _This _was one of the reasons why I couldn't get used to rebirth. _This_ and the new family and friends I got when I was reborn. Starting over again was awkward for me and going through education again would be pointlessly boring… yeah boring.

I never noticed how long I was staring at the face of the man in black. He must be an European or American… light greyish hair, green eyes and slightly tanned skin. I dubbed him: Chris, because of lack of imagination. The name of my cat in my former life… my cute grey cat with green eyes. I miss little Chris already… The man panicked a bit when tears started to form in my eyes.

"What now?" he asked the mad scientists. The scientists started to panic a bit at the change.

"Maybe it's hurt"

"No it probably just has to go to the toilet"

"Shouldn't we check on its health" the scientists argued. I was slightly amused because of their panic but they were starting to piss me off as well. Don't call me_ it _DAMN IT.

Ok calm down and think. What is the best thing that I could do now… I looked around again one, two, three, four… five camera's and a badly hidden microphone underneath the operation table. I inwardly sighed while I kept my face as emotionless as possible. This was going to take a while…

…

_Do you understand the basics of illusions now? _The voice asked. The boy looked up to the moon and stars in the night sky. Not only did the voice invade his illusion a few days ago, but it also started to teach him stuff about the mist flame the every single night_._ Could this 'voice' be trusted? the boy wondered as he answered.

"Yes" The voice was amused by this.

_Kufufufu then start by trying to change this illusion. _The voice 'said'. The boy sighed at that. Whatever or whoever the voice may be, it was quite… demanding. But before he began he asked:

"What is kufufufu?" but the only answer he got was an annoying _kufufufu _from the voice.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here (again)**

**My first update yay, it hasn't been long yet but some people follow this story already… yay thanks! I still don't know if I will keep on updating (I already explained to you guys **_**how**_** lazy am right? No? veeeerrrryyy lazy) but I **_**will**_** try. (and did you guess who the little illusionboy is already? kufufufu it's really easy to guess).** **Anyways I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter and please review.**

**Doubleyy out**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2: Zero

A few months have passed since I was 'reborn' and the mad scientists decided that is was time to actually start to teach me things… stuff I already knew. So I was bored, even more than I get bored at school. I will _never _complain about school again. At least _something_ happens at school, at least I will have someone to talk with. Here I only have Chris and the scientists and I don't really talk to them. Actually I decided to pretend to be a mute.

I don't know what kind of experiment I'm supposed to be… but it's better to not take the risk of being sent out and become a weapon. _If_ that is what I'm supposed to be… I don't know.

It was funny to see the scientists panic in the beginning. The operations after the panic wasn't funny though, they decided that nothing was wrong with my body and it was something in my brain instead. So they started the operations on my brains, but after some operations they messed up badly. I couldn't feel anything anymore…

When the operations didn't give the results they wished for, they turned to violence and _that_ of course didn't work because I couldn't feel the pain anymore. So violence didn't work either. But with the violence I could finally see who could be my allies: the mad scientist who wears ugly ties and Chris, they were the only ones who opposed the violence. And they looked genuinely worried about me when the beatings were over. They treated my wounds, which healed fast, and tried to talk to me as well. But it always became an one-sided conversation for them. I have to admit that I liked listening to them tough, I even liked to listen to their troubles…

_Anyways_, Chris probably warmed up to me and Tie ( as I dubbed my new less non-friendly-mad scientist than the other non-friendly-child-abusing-mad scientists) was starting to warm up to me well. The looks they give me weren't looks of disgust and pity anymore and they didn't talk about me as if I was an object. I really hope that I could trust them.

Talking about warming up, the boy with the illusions was finally starting to warm up to me as well. Every night I would invade his illusion and teach him the uses of the mist flames. I could proudly say that he was a great student, he was already able to change most of the illusions I set up! I won't tell him the truth about my illusions though, it may hurt his pride if I told him that the illusions I set up were pretty weak ones. Instead I increased the strength of the illusions every night a little bit so he would get stronger without him noticing.

…

_Kufufufu well done, boy you managed to change the illusion again. _The boy almost smiled at that, he would never admit how the compliments made him feel a bit better than before. Proud. He was still a bit wary about this voice though, who was it and why did they teach him so much or so long. Just what did they want from him?

_Is something wrong? _The voice asked. Even though the boy couldn't really hear the voice, it 'sounded' a bit concerned.

"Nothing" he whispered.

_Kufufufu then, let's take a break and talk about useless stuff. You want to ask a question first? _The voice asked. The boy looked a bit surprised at this.

"Why?" he asked with a calm voice, but inside he wasn't calm at all. In fact, he liked the lessons and he was afraid of the truth. What if the owner of the voice taught him everything because it wanted something from him. What if they really were a part of the Estraneo? What if…

_Kufufufu then I will go first, let's see what is your name? I mean, we have known each other for quite a while already but we still don't know each other's name right?_ The voice interrupted his thoughts.

The boy thought about this… it's true. They had been 'talking' for a few months already and yet he didn't know anything about the voice except for its vast knowledge about mist flames and illusions.

"Mukuro… Rokudo Mukuro" he answered "What is your name?"

_Well nice to meet you Muku-chan. And hmm well… I don't have a name? _Mukuro was surprised and embarrassed at the same time.

"How can't you have a name, I gave you my name already so give me yours! AND DON'T CALL ME MUKU-CHAN" he shouted frustrated.

_Kufufufu well, no one gave me a name since I was born, the only thing they call me is subject 00. You may give me a name if you want to… and nope I will keep on calling you Muku-chan, Muku-chan. kufufufu_

Mukuro felt as if he was hit by thunder at that very moment. Just how long did the voice live without a name and why did they keep on insisting using that nickname…

"Are you male or female?" he asked after a while.

_I don't know… I never got the chance to see or feel myself, after all they messed up my brain before I could try and now I can't feel anything kufufufu. _The voice answered a bit amused. _Now I am immune to their violence and they might now stop trying to let me talk. And it's not like I will strip in front of them…_

"You are caught for interrogation?" Mukuro asked surprised. "And you can't feel!?" he added.

_Nope and nope. They don't want information from me, but they want information about me. My turn… Ok how old are you?_

The boy ignored the question. "About you…" he muttered. The owner of the voice must be experimented on after all.

…

"Hello? I asked a question you know? Hello? Muku-chan?" I tried to reach him but he was lost in thought. I shrugged and moved to sit next to him in silence. He had changed the illusion to a place in a forest. A nice change in scenery if you ask me, though I liked my cliff better…

"Zero", he said. I turned my head to see him. _Zero?_

"Your name will be Zero" he stated. Zero? O because of _subject 00_? That is just…

"Kufufufu" I laughed "Zero, hmm, I kind of like that. Ok my name from now on will be Zero. Thanks Mukuro… At least I know that I haven't the worst naming sense in the world now." Muku-chan blushed at my remark.

"S shut up" he muttered. Aww he was soooo cute when he pouts.

"Kufufufu… so how old are you"

"5 years old, you?"

"I haven't got a clue, boy… What is your greatest wish?". Muku-chan was wearing a blank expression as he answered after a while.

"Freedom… and the destruction of the mafia"

"O that is nice… WAIT WHAT no _WHY_?"

"I hate the mafia, they experiment on me and other children. They kill innocent people, they… they… th" Mukuro said with anger in his voice… no with _fury_. "they destroyed my life!"

Just what did they do to this boy to create a such a hate for the mafia? I didn't realize that I was holding my breath until I sighed.

"No… not all the mafia are like this you know" I started as Mukuro tried to keep his face blank, but his tears started to fall. "In this world, nothing is either black or white. There will always be 'bad guys', even where you don't expect them to be. But there will always be 'good guys' in the most unexpected places too…" _I'm really bad at explaining things_, I sighed.

"J just what is your p.. p point?" he asked, close to tears.

"You have only seen the darker side of the mafia up until now. Not every Famiglia is experimenting on children… not even on people! You've only seen the darker grey… There is no white, but a lighter part of the mafia exists. I'm sure of that!" I said as I remembered some of my past life's. A lot of my past life's were mafia-related, but they weren't _that_ bad. In fact they weren't bad at all, the life with the other pineapple head was... _fun_. "You will see, one day when your first wish is fulfilled… you will see. I'm sure of it. Don't hate all the mafia, not everything is dark after all…"

I heard the boy sob, and I let him cry as I looked at the fake stars in the illusion. He was _really_ getting better every day… He could really destroy the mafia if I can't get him to stop hating the mafia. But _how_, think Zero, _think_. How did I calm down my children in my former life's?

"Let's make a deal" I began "If you try to give the mafia a chance, I will teach you an awesome trick." His sobbing stopped for a moment. _So he's interested_, I thought. Just one more push.

"I will teach you how to invade illusions and dreams" I said as dramatically as I could. _Bingo_. The sobbing stopped slowly and he started to calm down.

"I'll try?" he said after a while.

"Trying is all I ask Muku-chan" I smiled. "Your illusions are getting better, are you still afraid of the dark?" I teased.

"S s shut up!" he shouted embarrassed.

"Kufufufu… let's continue the lesson then."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Well, another update yay. I hope that I will be able to keep on going… **_**anyways**_**. Our subject 00 finally got his/her name, though it isn't that much different from subject 00… well I couldn't think of another name for him/her, I'm bad with names after all. Just like Zero, **_**just like Zero**_**… and I still have to decide on a gender for our little subject (I'm thinking on female but I'm not sure… so many possibilities *sigh). Before everyone asks me, yes our Zero had children in some of her past life's. Maybe you will hear of them later, more of her past life's will get a part in the future kufufufu. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3: the end and the beginning

I was starting to get worried about my little student. It has been five nights since I've seen him. I tried, but there were no illusions or dreams to invade. He has never been away for this long in the past five years that we had known each other. But this wasn't the only reason why I was feeling uneasy.

I looked around in the same white room. Where were the mad scientists? They had been gone for a while too… I've got a bad feeling about this… Chris and only one random mad scientist were the only ones I could see. I walked around aimlessly.

Just _what_ was happening? In the past five years the mad scientists rarely left their spots. I was starting to think that they were _living_ behind the glass window. They still tried to teach me stuff I already knew in the last years, I'm glad that they gave up about the talking though. They let me be mute after a while… so they didn't notice that my sense of touch was back and working again.

It seems that even brain damage could heal in this body! I'm such an awesome experiment!

At least I know that I'm a girl now, _that_ or I missed some parts… ahem anyways, I still don't know what I looked like. They always shaved my hair off before I could see my hair color and the glass stayed reflectionless. No matter how many times or how long I stared at it.

Something was wrong… the weird feeling in my back was not helping either. I could see that Chris was nervous too. After a while I stopped walking around and sat down in a white chair. Normally I would have complained that I was bored, but the uneasiness didn't let me feel bored. I was tense and nervous instead. The door behind the window opened and Tie walked in.

"We can switch now" he told the random mad scientist. The mad scientist nodded and gathered his stuff to leave. Tie didn't look too well, he was looking a bit green and he was shaking.

"Why…" he sobbed after the random mad scientist left. Chris and I looked a bit worried at him. Tie buried his face in his hands and sat down on a chair.

"Are you all right?" Chris asked. Tie shook his head weakly.

"_I_ am… but… out there… the experiments… somehow… someone… it has to stop. Please make it stop. _Please_…" he sobbed.

If I wasn't sure before, then I am sure now. Something is wrong, terribly wrong… After a while he calmed down and wiped his tears away. Suddenly the lights went out, leaving the white room a bit spooky. _What was happening?_ An alarm went off and Chris didn't hesitate. He quickly opened the grey door to grab Tie who was paralyzed. Now the door was opened I could smell the foul scent on the other side of the door. The metallic scent of blood and medicine. I immediately followed Chris out of my room for the first time in this life. _Is it the fire-alarm?_ No I would have smelled the smoke if there was fire… then _what_ was happening? Chris grabbed Tie and urged him to run. After that Chris lifted me up in bridal style and carried me while running after Tie.

In the chaos I couldn't see what was happening and it seems that I had fainted or was knocked out as I arrived in Mukuro's illusion when they were running.

"Where are you?" he asked

"What is happening?" I ignored his question

"…I-I… killed the scientists… it was hurting so much. I don't know what happened… somehow I killed them all!" he shouted. Was that pride I heard? Or regret? "I tried… I really did try. But I… I couldn't control the pain anymore! They were hurting the others too! Someone hit the alarm before I could kill him though… and something is coming. That gave me the chance to k-kill them in their distraction. But I tried… really, I tried to... I… I'm so..."

"Escape… WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? STOP THIS ILLUSION AND START RUNNING!" I interrupted him. Someone hit the alarm, something is coming. This something is most definitely dangerous and _not_ only for the mad scientists.

"NOT WITHOUT YOU!"

"YES YOU _WILL _LEAVE WITHOUT ME. YOU WILL LEAVE _NOW_."

"I CAN'T LEAVE YOU BEHIND!"

"YES! Yes… you can, but you won't. Don't worry, we will meet, someday… outside when we're both free. Someone is already dragging my body out of this hell while _you_ are wasting your time here… so… WHERE ARE YOU WAITING FOR? RUN NOW! TAKE THE OTHER SURVIVORS AND RUN!" I shouted as I forcefully removed the illusion. He couldn't stop me from removing the illusion and I didn't give him a chance to. I couldn't stop myself from looking at his face for a last time though, he grew up pretty well, even in his personal hell.

"_Arrivederci Mukuro"_

…

When I woke up we were in a forest. I could faintly smell smoke and gunpowder. Chris and Tie were panting as they were sitting in the grass. I rubbed my eyes as I sat up, somehow my eyes were stinging. Before I could notice it I was crying silently. _So the lab has been destroyed_, I thought as the tears kept on flowing from my eyes. I hope that Muku-chan escaped, I promised to meet him someday but…

I got the feeling that this wasn't going to happen soon.

"What is this?" someone asked. Chris, Tie and I tensed up. Who said that? I turned to where the voice came from. _A baby? _Maybe the operations left some incurable permanent brain damage after all…

"Acrobaleno…" Chris muttered. "State your business!" If Chris sees him too, the baby must be real and talking… wait rainbow_?_ Did Chris just say… _rainbow_? I checked the sky, _no rainbows to be seen…_

"I just came to check out the lab which is left behind by the Estraneo Famiglia. Maybe something… interesting could be found" the green haired baby said. "Is that one of the children who were experimented on?" He asked when he noticed me.

"Kufufufu" Chris and Tie were wearing surprised expressions as I started talking out loud for the first time in this life. "I wasn't experimented on in the beginning… I am the experiment" I stated dramatically. I was a bit surprised at my voice, I expected it to sound… a bit weird because I've never used it before but it sounded smooth and warm. And I wasn't the only surprised one, both Chris and Tie were looking as if they had seen a ghost.

"You can talk?" Tie gasped after a while. The baby gave him a weird look.

"This child was your experiment and yet you didn't know that she could talk?" he asked with a mocking voice.

"For as far I know she hasn't talked since she was created" Tie retorted. "…and for as far I know she never tried to talk" he realized.

"I did hear the weird laugh once though, but I thought that it was my imagination…" Chris whispered. I shrugged.

"I didn't want to be used as some kind of weapon or something, it is better to be bored to death than be sent out to kill people." I said as I stood up. "By the way, My name is Zero hmm… Estraneo Zero. What are your names?" I asked with a smile.

Silence…

"Christiano Valanga" Chris answered after the shock faded away… are you kidding me? Chris was Christiano!? So he's actually a Chris? I'm shocked… my naming sense wasn't _that_ bad then.

"Joseph Churchill" Tie answered as he tried to straighten his brown hair which was messy from running.

"Verde" the baby answered.

"What now?" I asked. I sighed as no one answered after a while.

"Well…" I began "I think it's time for a new beginning" I answered my own question. I felt like an idiot for talking to myself, but it was not like I expected an answer from them…

_It's time for a new beginning indeed._

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**With this chapter the prologue is almost over. **_**Almost**_**. Anyways, I decided to make Zero a girl after thinking for a while. True, there are lots of female OC's in KHR! but I realized that there are a few future events that I planned which would allow me to write more… freely if the main character is female. (Thanks for the reviews by the way, they pretty much encouraged me to write some more). For the ones who didn't get it: there was a 5 years' time skip in this chapter… Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4: a new beginning

"No I won't allow that! She is free to do whatever she wants now and I won't let you force her to get experimented on!" Chris shouted.

"But she could be a scientific revolution!" Verde argued.

I sighed as I rubbed my eyes, why must they be so loud? _Headache_… I stood up and walked through Verde's lab. We've been here for one hour, just _one hour_ and they were already arguing and like a married couple! I almost reached the door as I saw the crocodile next to it. _What is a crocodile doing here? _I wondered as it came closer to me. I took some steps back into the room. Easy little crocodile, easy… _fine_ _then I won't leave!_ I shrugged. I looked around the lab for the umpteenth time.

"I disagree, damned baby!"

"She could change the world and satisfy my curiosity damn brat!"

Keep calm, keep calm… ok Zero, what would mother do? _Which _mother? Well… scrap that. What would Daemon do? Stupid question, he would ignore them and walk out… or kill them. Alaude? Even worse, I'm not beating them to death or arresting them! Do I have any other mafia friends except for the Vongola? Well maybe… no. More assertive friends maybe? What would _brother_ do? Shoot them down? Hmm that sounds tempting, but no… what about knocking them out? Any other ideas?

"No!"

"Yes!" I finally snapped.

"Kufufufu…" The males in the lab turned their heads to me. "Kufufufufufufu" Their faces went pale. "Kufufufufufufu… if you guys won't shut up and listen to me… well. Kufufufufu…" I started. "_I will show you your personal hell_" I finished coldly. Silence. Finally _silence_! So laughing eerily and threatening _actually_ works! Thank you uncle! You just saved my poor dysfunctional brains! I'm so sorry that I never listened to your royal rants… ahem.

"Should I begin now?" Ti-Joseph asked as he came in the lab. _How unfair_! Why could leave the lab and return? Why didn't _he_ get threatened by a crocodile? I gave the somehow smug looking crocodile a glare.

"According to the files we managed to safe, Zero-san has problems with vitamin D because of a serious lack of the sun. That is why her bones are dangerously weak, if she would fall of the stairs she could die!" he turned to me as he continued." But in these files it's stated that you were created for the medical world and not as a weapon. Your blood is supposed to be able to heal any injury or illness as quickly and efficient as possible."

"Is that why I'm able to feel again even though they messed up my brains?" I asked surprised. Both Chris and Verde looked surprised too, though different kinds of surprise. Chris looked genuinely surprised, the baffled kind. And Verde's surprise was a happy surprise, he looked as if he won a lottery or something like that. Tie- I mean Joseph was the only one in the lab who stayed completely calm.

"Yes" he answered. "Sadly enough we couldn't safe more files."

"So what will you do now?" Verde asked with some excitement in his voice.

I started to think and consider my options. I could let him experiment on me, I would like to know what I actually was after all. But Chris wouldn't be happy about that, I don't know how Tie-Joseph felt about this though. I started to walk around the room like I always did if I was nervous.

And even if I let him experiment on me, what would I do afterwards? Live my life like nothing happened? Somehow I didn't get the feeling that I would be able to. Some of the Estraneo managed to escape according to Verde, so they will definitely look for me in the future. _Soon_. There is another option though… they wouldn't like it. But do I have any other option?

"Verde…" I started nervously. "I would like to make a deal with you." I stopped walking and looked in his eyes. "I will let you experiment on me if you will introduce me to an influential mafia Famiglia… or help me to create a new one." I added. Verde looked surprised for a second before he smirked.

"Deal."

"So who would you introduce us to?" Chris asked sceptically, but Verde shook his head.

"No one" Chris raised an eyebrow "I will help you to create a new Famiglia instead." Verde stated with a smug look on his face.

"Why am I not surprised…" Chris asked sarcastically. "Count me in" Wait _what_?

"Don't forget about me, I am your personal healthcare companion after all boss" T-Joseph stated. _What_ are these idiots saying? And then I realized what he said.

"Wait, I'm the boss?" I asked. The trio nodded their heads an I resisted the urge to facepalm.

"You would follow a five years old kid, who isn't even human?" I asked sceptically. _I _knew that I was able to remember my past life's but _they_ didn't. I was a normal brat to them… _as normal as an 'human' experiment could be_.

"Everything for my experiments." The green haired baby answered, Chris sent him a deathly glare before he turned his eyes to me.

"I wouldn't be able to leave you even if I wanted to, you are all I've left now." He muttered as his glare softened. "And I got this feeling that you will be just fine."

"Like I said, I _am_ your personal healthcare companion and I _do_ feel responsible for you. In a way you're family." Tie-Joseph stated. _What is wrong with these people?_ I thought as I facepalmed. They are idiots to trust a five years and a few months old brat to become a mafia boss.

"I don't even have sky flames!" I stated as calm as I could, ahem _not calm at all_.

"You know about flames?" Verde asked. I nodded and he looked even more eager to experiment on me than before… and to interrogate me too.

"So what would the name of the new Famiglia?" he asked. So sky flames aren't necessary for a Famiglia according to Verde, remember this for later when we run into trouble because we don't have a leader with sky flames but _mist _flames. If we do run into trouble, I'm going to blame _Verde_.

"Hmm…" T-Joseph began. "what about Neo Estraneo? It's a taunt to the actual Estraneo which was just destroyed and proof that you survived, _boss_." I simply nodded weakly.

"Sure, why not. I'm bad with names anyways…" _translation:_ it's not like they would listen to me anyways…

…

A pale child with short spikes of white hair and a pair of big pale purple eyes stared at me. For the first time in my life I looked in a mirror and I was shocked to see that I looked human. Except for the colouring and the giant scar on my forehead I was a perfectly normal looking kid. There was no weird extra mouth or eye. I touched my scar hesitantly with my fingertips. It didn't hurt but it did remind me of all the experiments they did on me… it was a horrible experience. If I didn't have my past memories, I would have gone mad. Maybe I would have ended up killing the Estraneo and hating the mafia like Mukuro…

_I miss him_, I thought. But I can't meet him yet, I will create a Famiglia to be proud of before I will meet him. A new flare resolve lighted up, I have a goal now in this life and I will make sure to reach it. I smiled fondly as I recalled some of my past life's, a lot of my friends would have been proud of this resolve. I dropped my hand back to my side and turned away from the mirror. _I'm craving for some hot chocolate _. I thought as I walked out the room.

…

**Omake: after a while **

"What is this?" I asked when Ti-Joseph put the huge stack of paper on the new desk. Verde kept his promise and indeed helped us to start a new Famiglia, he even helped us to get a new base. One of his old labs in Italy that he would not use again because a certain bastard found out its location. Actually it was a big building with many labs with a forest surrounding it. Verde did more than I ever asked him to… He did experiment on me and interrogate me about flames afterwards though.

"Paperwork" Tie-Joseph answered and I inwardly scowled. _Great_… I just _love_ paperwork. Nope, _really_ not at all. I sighed and started working. I was used to paperwork in my past life's and I'm glad that I still had my knowledge about them. I signed some of the papers and handed them over to Tie.

"Could you check this please Tie- I mean Joseph" I asked. He raised an eyebrow at that.

"Sure boss… It's fine, you filled it in perfectly." He said as he gave back the document.

"Thanks T-Joseph... Hmm, could I just call you Tie?" I asked a bit frustrated.

"Why Tie?" he asked surprised.

"That is what I called you in my mind back there. I didn't know your name and I couldn't keep on calling you 'less non-friendly-mad scientist' in my head you know? So I decided to call you Tie and now I can't stop… so can I keep on calling you Tie?" I asked innocently this time.

"No"

"Why?"

"It sounds stupid"

"Can I call you…" I thought a while… Joseph and Tie… Seph and Tie… "Seth then?" I asked.

"N…" he began, but I put on my puppy face. "OK fine…" he sighed defeated. I grinned, so the puppy face still works.

"Thanks uncle Seth" I said cheerfully as I started my paperwork again.

"But seriously, why did you call me Tie?" he asked in with a tired tone.

"Because the ties you wore were horribly ugly" I answered, he face palmed. "It brought some colour in my life" I smiled innocently. The smile turned warmer when he left the room, exhausted from the conversation.

"Kufufufu" I laughed quietly, but happily.

**Hey guys doubleyy here,**

**Thanks for reading this chapter! Now we know the reason for the title of this story! And I added an omake! I'm not sure if it was a good one but it was fun to write. Maybe I will be writing more omakes in the future! I already knew that Zero had a bad naming sense so writing the reactions on those names are fun to do (and I will be calling Tie/Joseph/Seth either Joseph or Seth in the future chapters, so don't be too confused…). Anyways thanks for reading (again) and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys doubleyy here, **

**For those who are wondering about the A.N., this is a double update! (though you can read this chapter first too…). Thanks for reading!**

…

Xtra Chapter: Chris

After my parents died, my elder sister was the only family I had left. She took care of me, but after my graduation we lived our own life's. I never expected us to drift apart, but we did. After a few years I didn't even hear of my sister, apart from the birthday, Christmas and new year cards. I admit that I didn't try to get contact with her as well but I had my own reasons.

Our parents were part of the mafia, they never told us why or which family they belonged to. Probably to keep us safe, but by sheer coincidence I was recognized on the streets. I quite looked like my father after all. The Estraneo Famiglia, or so they called themselves, didn't let their chance slide. My parents apparently had a debt to them, _their own Famiglia,_ and they wanted their money. Badly.

I was afraid, of course. But if I didn't pay them, they would find my sister. She would have to pay… so I agreed. I worked and worked, I threw away my dreams, my future. The amount of money they asked from me was huge, it was like the debt would never be repaid. But I kept on working, for my sister.

And then she died…

It was so sudden, so… _unexpected_. My beautiful sister who I haven't seen since my graduation from university almost four years ago… was gone. If I knew I would have visited her at least once, _hell_ I would have visited her as many times as possible. But it was too late now… I had no dreams left, no future, no family. Just a debt and myself. So when the Estraneo offered me a chance to repay my debt by working for them, I had no attachments left and I agreed.

…

The first time I met her was… intense. She was sleeping on the operation table just a few moments ago and now she was moving. _No_ she was testing her body, opening and closing her hands. She looked surprised and somehow calculative. I repositioned myself in front of the door, guarding an experiment for five years would dissolve the debt and I was determined to complete this job without any feelings. But wasn't it supposed to be an _experiment_ that I had to guard? Not a person? Then, why am I guarding a baby?

Then I realized that _she was the experiment_. Being experimented on would be inevitable for the little girl too… I suddenly felt disgusted for working for these people. Somehow I felt afraid of her hating me for working with them. I pitied her, for having this destiny. And I was concerned about what they will do to her.

Without me really noticing she walked closer and now she was standing in front of me. Her pale purple eyes staring into my green ones. _How could she look this human when she isn't a _real_ human_, I asked myself but I felt lost in her warm eyes. First they looked curious, then melancholic and then sad. Tears started to form in her eyes, _what is wrong?_ I panicked.

"What now?" I asked my 'employers'. They started to panic a bit at the sudden change too.

"Maybe it's hurt"

"No it probably just has to go to the toilet"

"Shouldn't we check on its health" they argued. Anger flared up, _why are they calling her it?_ I managed to keep my face neutral but inside I was a mess. I looked at her face, her expression was neutral but I could feel some frustration radiating from her, which made me feel frustrated too.

_Just when did I start caring for her?_

…

I was already uncomfortable by how they were treating her before, they never let her sleep normally. They drugged her and experimented on her while she was unconscious. But when she didn't make a sound even after a few months I was even more worried. And I wasn't the only one, my 'employers' were quite worried too. Just for a different reason…

She was already a genius without talking, even if she didn't always show it. Every time my 'employers' tried to teach her something it was like she already knew everything she was taught. But that wasn't enough for them. They started operating on her brains after confirming that nothing was wrong with her body. And they probably messed up, most definitely. For a few days she was barely conscious. _Barely alive_. My 'employers' were furious when they found out that not only the operations didn't work, but also that they _did_ mess up.

The little girl, who was as silent as always, didn't even flinch at the abuse they gave her… She couldn't feel anymore… the operations failed. I tried to keep my face neutral as I treated her wounds, but I failed miserably. The girl let me treat her silently and smiled a warm smile at me. It was like she was consoling _me_, like she was saying that it _wasn't_ my fault, like she was _thanking_ me. _Me_, the one who didn't stop my 'employers', the one who let all this happen, the one who is only here to clear his debt… And she forgave me.

From that day on, I devoted myself to the little girl. The girl who could somehow forgive me for everything that I did, or didn't do. The girl who became my new family.

…

It was after a few months when I met him. Joseph Churchill, a doctor who also had a debt to repay, though he doesn't like to talk about it. He became her 'personal healthcare companion' as he liked to call himself, even if she didn't need it. Her wounds healed incredibly fast and she was _never_ ill, but my 'employers' insisted. And I found out why, not long after meeting him.

The meals they normally gave her were basic, nothing special. But the meals changed a bit. I first thought that they started to use spices, then I noticed what those 'spices' were. _Poison_. They poisoned every meal they gave her, but she didn't even show a sign of getting poisoned. She ate like nothing was wrong, like the food wasn't poisoned at all. But I was still disgusted to see it happening. And I was glad to see that the newcomer was disgusted as well.

Jospeh kept his distance to the girl in the beginning, but he started to warm up to her too after a while. Her presence could somehow draw people in, make people trust her. She trusted us too, I could see that. Her smiles she gave us were warm and consoling, she let us treat her and showed more emotions whenever we were around. Maybe this is why we both started to talk to her about more personal stuff. He told him about his unusual youth and I told her about my family and my debt, she didn't make a sound but her warm smiles healed us.

It was after a few one-sided conversations when I heard a weird sound.

"_Kufufufu_."

_Wait, did she just laugh?_ I stared at her face but her expression didn't change at all._ It must have been my imagination then…_

…

Five years rushed by and I was considering staying in the Famiglia, just to stay by her side. After all this time she became someone like a little sister to me, someone like family. I felt nervous, _what if they didn't let me stay?_ But that wasn't the only reason why I was uneasy.

I looked through the window, just one scientist… _where were the others?_ 'my little sister' seemed to notice it too as she started walk around aimlessly like she always did if she was nervous or uneasy. _Something is wrong._

The door behind the glass opened and Joseph came in.

"We can switch now" he told the scientist.

"Why…" he sobbed immediately after the scientist left. My 'little sister' and I looked a bit worried at him. Tie buried his face in his hands and sat down on a chair.

"Are you all right?" I asked, but he shook his head weakly.

"I am… but… out there… the experiments… somehow… someone… it has to stop. Please make it stop. _Please_…" he sobbed.

Suddenly the lights went out and an alarm went off. I didn't hesitate after I recovered from the shock and opened the door as fast as I could. This was code 0, the alarm which would warn everyone to leave the base immediately because the base is under attack. I grabbed Joseph and urged him to run, after that I wanted to run back and grab 'my little sister'. But she was already standing by my feet, her pale eyes showing confusion. I picked her up her and followed Joseph. Somehow she was knocked out as we ran, but I kept running to the secret exit.

The hidden maze of corridors reeked of blood, the smell made me feel even more uneasy . _They are here_. Then I smelled something else as well. Gunpowder? Who uses that these days… _NO WAY they're planning on blowing up the base!_ I ran even faster and almost _dragged_ Joseph with me when I realized it. Even when we reached the exit we kept on running. And running. _And running._

_Safe_…

I panted and joseph fell on his knees. I put 'my sister' down and tried to catch my breath, again. _Ah, she's waking up… why is she crying?_

"What is this?" someone asked. I tensed up. A baby? _No_ I heard about these babies before… the green pacifier confirmed my suspicions.

"Acrobaleno…" I muttered. "State your business!"

"I just came to check out the lab which is left behind by the Estraneo Famiglia. Maybe something… interesting could be found" the green haired baby said. "Is that one of the children who were experimented on?" he asked as he noticed her. I opened my mouth to answer but someone else answered before I could.

"Kufufufu" Where did I hear this before? I looked around to find the owner of the voice. "I wasn't experimented on in the beginning… I am the experiment" a calming voice stated dramatically… _no way right?_

"You can talk?" Joseph gasped after a while. The acrobaleno gave him a weird look.

"This child was your experiment and yet you didn't know that she could talk?" he asked with a mocking voice. _She wasn't _our_ experiment!_

"For as far I know she hasn't talked since she was created" Joseph retorted. "And for as far I know she never tried to talk" he realized. T-that… is right. _She indeed never really tried to_, I realized too.

"I did hear the weird laugh once though, but I thought that it was my imagination…" I whispered, too surprised to say anything that made sense.

"I didn't want to be used as some kind of weapon or something, it is better to be bored to death than be sent out to kill people." She said as she stood up. "By the way, my name is Zero hmm… Estraneo Zero. What are your names?" she smiled.

_Zero? Estraneo? Did she name herself?_

"Christiano Valanga" I answered when I found my voice.

"Joseph Churchill"

"Verde"

"What now?" She asked… no one answered, I couldn't think of anything yet.

What indeed? When I came to the Estraneo I left everything I had behind, maybe we could have lived our life's normally… if she wasn't an experiment. If there was any survivor of the Estraneo, they would most definitely go after her when they find out that she survived. _If I would leave her alone I could live a normal life but…_

"Well… I think it's time for a new beginning" She said before I could say anything. No matter what will happen to us… _I won't leave her alone._

_It's time for a new beginning indeed. And I will follow you, my dear little sister._

**Hey guys doubleyy here again,**

**With this chapter the prologue is finally over. Next time the official plot will begin! I was thinking about posting a chapter with another point of view and then suddenly this chapter was done! (That is the reason for the double update *winks) It's kind of a summary too, so two birds with one stone! Anyways, now you know how Chris came into the Estraneo and I'm thinking about writing something like this about Tie/Joseph/Seth in the future too. **_**Maybe**_**… Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 5: arrival

"Why are we in Japan again Zero?" Chris asked. I sighed.

"Because Verde wanted me to test his latest invention and sent me here… but you know that already." I stated as I stepped out the car.

"That is exactly why I asked, Zero, why are we following _his_ orders?" he retorted.

"It's because this invention was my idea and it has to be tested anyways, I thought it would be fair to let him choose the testing site. Though I never expected him to choose Japan and I don't understand why in this place specifically…"I answered. Why Nanimori indeed?

"I don't trust him" Chris said with a hint of disgust in his voice.

"The entire Neo Estraneo knows that already uncle Chris… And shouldn't we try to get uncle Seth out the car?" I asked concerned. Uncle Seth had a serious case of motion sickness and the flight and ride didn't make him feel better…

"I'm… fine… just let me… sit down for a while…" Seth said weakly as he stepped out the car too. The grown man looked ready to throw up and pass out anytime now. Chris hurried to him as the other man was staggering and helped him to stand up properly.

"Chris, please carry him in the house. I will try to find a mini market and buy something to make him feel better" I ordered. "Don't worry, I will be just fine. And I am the only one of us who can actually move freely now, remember?" I said when I saw his expression, but he wasn't reassured.

"You need at least one bodyguard Zero. You are the only one of us who is actually a mafia boss, remember?" he said.

"Kufufufu. I'll be back before nightfall" I laughed as I ran off, without a bodyguard of course. Chris was really overprotective sometimes… or _all the time_. If I didn't talk him out of it he would have taken the entire Famiglia with us instead of just us three. _The entire Famiglia_. And there were quite a lot of people in my Famiglia now…

Most of them were ex-Estraneo members who didn't know about the human experiments and the others were former freelance inventors from all over the world. We even had an alliance with Verde who liked to visit the Italian base. Just to torment the scientists and inventors with his presence _or _to ask my assistance for an experiment and interrogate me about the uses of flames for future experiments. He was surprised to find out about my knowledge of flames, and my nearly perfect mist flame-control. Well… I _did_ remember my past life's so I had plenty time for practice.

"A game he says, we aren't playing a game damn baseball-freak!" someone complained loudly. I walked in the direction of the voice, maybe they knew a shortcut to a mini market or something.

"Hieee Gokudera-san, please calm down" another voice said. I finally reached them and I called out to them.

"Excuse me, but could you…" they turned around and I froze in my tracks.

_G and Giotto?_

…Maybe all the paperwork fried my brains and I'm hallucinating, or my brains are still dysfunctional because of the brain damage. Or maybe this is just a dream and I'm still in the plane…

"What?" asked the G-lookalike in an angry and very-G-like tone.

…or not. Maybe they are their descendants, but that would only explain their looks. I observed the G-lookalike who doesn't only _look_ like an angry G, but also _acted_ like an angry G… maybe they are reborn too? Before I could think of any more theories I decided to do the only thing that I could think of.

Run away to safe my sanity.

…

Sawada Tsunayoshi was feeling troubled today. Not only did his torturer ahem _tutor_ force… no _invite_ his friend Yamamoto in his Famiglia yesterday, but there was a pop quiz today according to his teacher. And on top of that, his tor-tutor Reborn was standing right behind the window. Staring no _overseeing_ his actions, making sure that he is acting like a mafia boss or something like that.

"Just kidding class" the teacher laughed and Tsuna relaxed. "We have a transfer student from Italy instead" and Tsuna tensed up again. The last time they got a transfer student from Italy… he glanced at his new friend Gokudera. Well it didn't end up as a normal transfer student, it was all planned by Reborn instead…

The brunet sincerely prayed that the transfer student isn't part of the mafia this time.

A small girl with her white messy curled hair in low short pigtails walked in. Tsuna relaxed when he saw that she was clearly too young to be scouted by the mafia, but something in the back of his head bothered him. _Why does she feel so familiar?_ He asked himself. Tsuna tried to remember where he might have seen the girl before, but even though he felt like he saw her recently he couldn't remember when.

And then her pale purple eyes crossed his brown ones.

"Hieee aren't you the girl we saw yesterday?" he asked loudly when he realized when he saw the girl before. Then he blushed a deep red because he remembered that he was still in class. He covered his red face in his hands and wished that he could simply disappear when he heard his classmates laugh at him.

"Hey Gokudera, do you have a younger sister or something? She has white hair like you." Yamamoto asked.

"Shut up baseball-freak, just because we have the same hair color doesn't mean that we are related! And my hair isn't white it's SILVER."Gokudera exploded.

…

_I'm not even going to try anymore_, I sighed as the G-lookalike and Asari-lookalike continued to argue like a married couple. They didn't seem to care about the fact that they are still in the classroom, with a transfer student in front of them…

I ignored their little argument and turned my attention to the red faced Giotto-lookalike. He really looked like a younger Giotto, just with a different coloring. He looked slightly more feminine too and there was something else that somehow bothered me... I sighed when I found out what was bothering me.

He lacks resolve… and ambition, self-confidence, a goal and more… It is kind of weird to see someone who was _this_ similar to my old friend and yet not similar at all. And there is another thing that bothered me… _but what?_

I sighed again as I worried about my brains. Someone is messing around with my current life by showing me lookalikes of friends of one of my past life's. I've almost met the entire club too…

Today I ran into an Knuckle-lookalike when I was walking to school and _Hell_ the leader of the disciplinary committee was an Alaude-lookalike! I shivered when I remembered our encounter this morning… And how I barely avoided being bitten to death, but only thanks to my medical declarations of dangerously weak bones. My bones weren't _that_ weak anymore, but Chris and uncle Seth were too… overprotective to let me go to school without it. Especially to a school selected by _Verde_!

I sighed again when I remembered what happened yesterday. After I ran home yesterday, without the stuff I was looking for, I found out that Verde left some papers on the desk.

…

_Flashback._

_To the Neo Estraneo Primo_

I scowled at the title, I hated to be called Primo… and Verde knew that!

_Be sure to test my invention, the instructions are in this document. And I was nice enough to transfer you into the local middle school, be sure to torment the bastard. You will know who I mean when you see him…_

_Verde_

"…That bastard!" I shouted and Chris soon ran in my room, alarmed by my shout.

"What's wrong Zero?" he said with a dark expression.

"Verde enrolled me to a middle school" I sniffed. Chris relaxed his body when he decided that nothing was wrong with me and scowled at the mention of Verde. "He's so mean… he _knew_ that I would be able to handle at least high school level." I continued. Chris gave me a confused look.

"You're upset about _that_?"

"What? I promised to _never_ complain about school anymore!" I defended myself.

…

Daemon-lookalike… check,

Giotto-lookalike… check,

G-lookalike… check,

Knuckle-lookalike… check,

Alaude-lookalike… check,

Asari-lookalike… check,

Lampo-lookalike… nope. _Please don't let him appear soon!_ My poor brains were barely able to handle the lookalikes I saw up to now and my emotions are already unstable because of them. A Lampo-lookalike is not going to make me feel better, especially if he acts the same as Lampo…

"Would you like to introduce yourself to us, dear?" the teacher asked when the married couple was done arguing.

"My name is Estraneo Zero" I began. With that I gained an evil look from the G-lookalike, Goku or something and I sensed an dangerous presence from somewhere behind the windows. _So Goku-something and someone else knows about the Estraneo_, I thought as the pressure which was enough to drive a normal person insane sent shivers to my spine. "I'm from Italy and I'm ten years old."

"Zero-chan skipped a few classes in Italy and now she transferred to Japan because of family issues. Please treat her nicely, my name is Chinatsu Kasumi and I am your homeroom teacher, but please call me Chinatsu-sensei. Your seat will be-"

"Excuse me, Chinatsu-sensei? Could I sit somewhere in the front? I can't see anything from behind because I'm short" I asked embarrassed. After all puberty hasn't kicked in yet_… O joy puberty again_, I groaned inwardly. Not a period that I'm looking forward to…

"Sure Zero-chan. Ah Megumi-chan, would you please let Zero-chan sit in your seat? You can take the seat behind Yamamoto-kun instead" She said sweetly. I could see the expression on the said girl, Megumi, go from neutral to sad to happy during this conversation and I sweatdropped. _How did her mood change so fast? _

"Zero-chan dear, you can sit besides Gokudera-kun" the teacher continued. _Gokudera?_ Where did I hear that name before… no way right. _The G-lookalike?_ My eyes widened when I realized that Megumi, who was moving her stuff to her new seat, was indeed sitting next to the G-lookalike. _O joy_, _Now my I will have to worry about my sanity every single schoolday_, I sighed as I earned another glare from my new neighbor. Then I sighed again because I noticed that I already sighed a lot today…

…

When the lunch break started, I almost _ran_ away to escape Gokudera's wrath. I didn't do anything _yet_ but he already looks like he wanted to murder me or something… Only when I reached the roof I relaxed.

Finally_ freedom_… or not.

I felt some stares at my back and I turned around, slowly… and froze. The Giotto-lookalike, Asari-lookalike and Gokudera were all staring at me…

_Well I'm damned._

"H-hey" I said awkwardly. "Nice weather, right?" Smooth Zero, really _smooth_.

"Estraneo Famiglia, what are you guys doing in Japan?" a squeaky but intimidating voice asked behind me. I turned around again to see the owner of the voice… _another baby? _

"_Neo_, which part of _Neo_ Estraneo won't people get? If I knew how many people would say it wrong, I wouldn't have let uncle Seth name the Famiglia…"I muttered with a mix of confusion and frustration in my voice. The shock of seeing all the lookalikes and another, possibly, genius baby made me unable to think straight for a while and made me mutter about irrelevant topics, but the baby got me out of my daze with a gun.

"Neo Estraneo…" He stated while pointing the green gun at my head. _Where the hell did that come from?_ "State your business in Japan, _Neo_ Estraneo…" he didn't have to finish the sentence to make me understand that he was threatening me.

"Well… doing a favor for a friend… ally?" I wondered out loud. What were we doing in Japan again… "and to test an invention of a fr-_ally_." I stated when I remembered the experiment.

"Ally?" the baby asked. I observed the said baby, he was wearing a mini-tuxedo, an awfully familiar fedora and another awfully familiar pacifier… _pacifier_? Then it hit me.

"Do you perhaps know a baby called Verde?" I asked. Bad decision, he looked like he was ready to shoot a bullet right through my head anytime now. I was trying to find a way out of this situation when I noticed his curly sideburns…

_Brother?_

…

**Omake: a few days ago in Italy**

"So you want me to go to Japan? To… Nanimori? Why this place specifically?" Zero asked. I simply smirked at the questions that the boss of the only Famiglia that I'm allied with asked.

"You're not going to answer, are you?" she sighed. "Anyways, are you sure that it is safe Verde? Nanimori sounds like a normal town and an accident when experimenting could end up badly for the people there…"

"Don't worry Zero, I specifically selected this testing site for good reasons and I'm sure that my invention won't explode." I stated. "Be sure to test it various times, I want to know all the details and-"

"I got it Verde, I will take care of it all." The white haired girl smiled. My smirk softened in a fond smile. When I first met her she was simply another subject of interest, a girl who was completely clueless about technology. Now she is the boss of one of the most famous inventors-Famiglia in the underworld, she earned both the respect and trust of her Famiglia-members and me… how weird, since when did I start to trust and respect her? I shrugged.

_She must be able to make me trust her if she wants to keep the alliance with me anyways…_

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**So Zero is in Nanimori now (thanks to Verde) and attends Nanimori-middle (thanks to Verde again) and met Tsuna and his gang. Now… who guessed the identity of the brother right? And who guessed that she is younger than the original cast? *raises my hand. I tried to write a part in Tsuna's (and Verde's) point of view too, but I don't really know how that ended up… did I do it right? Are they too OOC? Too many questions on my part… *sighs. I could start an Q&amp;A with only my own questions haha. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 6: Famiglia

_Brother? _

No wait, according to my calendar it has been fifteen years since I died. And I was an experiment which was born five years after the start of my 'creation'. So now I'm ten and brother should be around forty, if my math's is right… _Anyways_, this kid could easily be his son… _so Renato finally settled down?_

"Hieee, Reborn why are you threatening the transfer student?" the Giotto-lookalike asked.

"Because, Dame-Tsuna, she is part of the mafia. And she is an ally of a really annoying individual." He answered.

_Reborn?_ If my brains weren't already dysfunctional or fried from meeting my past-friends-lookalikes they would be dysfunctional and frying now. Renato's nickname was Reborn too… Did he name his son after himself? That is… plain weird. His naming sense was supposed to be better than mine!

"Give me a reason why I shouldn't kill you here and now" Reborn's threat interrupted my thoughts. Well, which options do I have?

Option 1: _I'm probably here to torment you because of a favor for a an ally you seem to hate_… plan abandoned.

Option 2: _I'm here to test this invention of the ally you seem to hate_… been there done that, bad result. Plan abandoned… again.

Option 3: _I wanted to escape my mafia-life?_ Nope I brought my work with me so this would be a lie, and if Reborn is my brother's son lying won't help. Plan abandoned.

Option 4: _leave an illusion as an distraction and run away_… but that would simply be procrastination. Plan abandoned.

Are there any other options? No? Damn time is running out… The gun aimed at my head didn't really help me to concentrate either. I looked in the eyes of the baby and immediately regretted the small action. His dark eyes were observing me, trying to look into my soul. Terrifying cold and yet strangely familiar.

"B-because I can help!" I blurted out as the pressure grew heavier every single second. That was not what I intended to say, but Reborn seemed satisfied with my answer.

"I will take on that offer. Will join the Vongola?" he asked as the green gun turned into a chameleon. Normally I would have wondered about the shapeshifting chameleon, but what he said left me dumbfounded…

_Vongola_?

Really, I should have expected that. With all these lookalikes… it would have been impossible if they weren't the Vongola. _Anyways_, Vongola? I already joined ages ago… around 400 years ago. It was… fun back then. Even though I originally didn't want to join the small Vigilante-group, I never regretted joining though… Even if the Vongola became a mafia Famiglia in the end..._ I never regretted joining and I never will. _

_But why did I die at that moment?_ I swallowed to get rid of the weird feeling in my throat.

"I-I can't, Reborn-san. I already have a Famiglia to take care of." I looked in his strangely familiar dark eyes again and smiled a sad smile. "Nice to meet you Reborn-san, my name is Estraneo Zero and I'm the Neo Estraneo Primo… And that is why I can't join the Vongola, but I would like to offer an alliance instead?" I added.

"Hieee, You were part of the mafia too Estraneo-san?" the Giotto-lookalike asked.

"Please call me Zero, Neo Estraneo is my Famiglia after all so it's confusing when you call me Estraneo-san" I said as I turned to him "And yes, I'm from the mafia… surprise?"

…

"And yes, I'm from the mafia… surprise?" she added. Tsuna didn't know what to say anymore… A kid, just ten years old, is a mafia boss too? Isn't she too young for that? After all she is even younger than him and a girl! Why did she accept her position? Why didn't she choose for a normal life? Why…

"We accept" Reborn interrupted his thoughts. "Please excuse Dame-Tsuna, he's new to his position" he added. _Why did you accept?_ He thought in panic. Don't get her involved in this…

_Even though she already is involved, _something in the back of his head stated.

…

"Reborn-san, why did you accept the offer?" Gokudera exploded. _He has a temper like G's_, I sweatdropped as I remembered the pink haired man. He would explode too whenever he was angry… or pissed off. Which was all of the time actually, though there were times that he was calm and collected too…

"The Estraneo Famiglia is known for being a horrible and ruthless Famiglia, they are monsters! We can't let Juudaime get involved with their illuminati ways!" He continued. Well the Estraneo Famiglia was, but we're the _Neo_ Estraneo Famiglia. _Neo_, damn it!

"Calm down Gokudera-san. The Estraneo is gone now, the _Neo_ Estraneo isn't like that. Sure we invent weapons, but I made sure that creating something cruel or experimenting on people is forbidden. Anyone who breaks this rule will have to face _me_." I stated. I will _never_ allow those cruel experiments anymore, _never! _Not in my Famiglia and not in any other Famiglia! _Never again._

"The Neo Estraneo is a rising Famiglia in Italy, in just five years they managed to gather the best scientists and inventors in the world and they quickly became the most famous weapon-designing Famiglia in Italy. Right now they are one of the more influential Famiglia's too. One without any alliances except for one and it is said that they never accepted another alliance in fear that their inventions could be used wrongly. They indeed developed some dangerous and _creative_ weapons, but the Famiglia is harmless in any other way." Reborn said… wait this kid knew this all along? _He tricked me!_

Like father like son I guess…

"So… you're playing this mafia-game too, Zero-chan?" the Asari-lookalike asked. If I remembered it right, he must be Yamamoto. The guy in front of the girl called Megumi or something.

"Kufufufu. It isn't exactly a _game_ Yamamoto-san." I laughed. His carefree personality somehow reminded me of Asari, the only man apart from Giotto who could actually calm G down. Though he is also one of the main reasons why G was always pissed off.

"But I guess I am." I said.

"Not you too Estraneo-midget!" Gokudera exclaimed. "It's not a damn game!"

"Kufufufu."

…

After clearing a misunderstanding that Tsuna didn't understand, the small group decided to eat their lunches. Tsuna kept on stealing glances at the smaller girl next to him. This girl was a total mystery to him, how could she be a mafia boss? He considered asking her, but he didn't get a chance as Gokudera was still glaring at the girl in suspicion.

Tsuna got his chance when Yamamoto laughed and tried to get Gokudera to stop glaring at Zero. This resulted in Yamamoto being the new victim to Gokudera's glares instead. As they started bickering Tsuna asked his question.

"Eh Estr-Zero-san… W-why did you become a mafia boss?" He asked softly. The girl looked up to him with her violet eyes showing surprise.

"Why do you want to know that?" She asked.

"Well because I-I'm forced to become a boss myself and I… don't want to do it. And you _are_ a mafia boss, even though you're so young and a girl. N-not that girls can't be good bosses! But-"

"Kufufufu. It's fine, I understand." She laughed. and Tsuna groaned inwardly at his useless ranting. He should have given her a simple answer instead of an entire lame speech.

"Well… to say the truth. I was part of the original Estraneo, until the hideout where I was in was destroyed by… another Famiglia. My uncles and I managed to escape before it was blown up. After that we or at least _I_ had nowhere to go and no future left, so I-"

"What do you mean with no future left?" He interrupted. Tsuna was surprised to hear that her original Famiglia was destroyed, but why would she have no future left because of that?

"Because I was experimented on" The girl stated nonchalantly. Tsuna blinked a few times as his brains refused to accept the information he just got.

_Did she just say experimented?_

"The original Estraneo was a Famiglia which… experimented on the kids in the Famiglia, me included. Gokudera-san was right about that you know, they were quite… ruthless. But because of these experiments I _knew_ that they would look for me. I didn't want to hurt the normal people, so I decided to ask my ally to either introduce me to a Famiglia or to help me to create a new one. And that is how the Neo Estraneo Famiglia began."

_Zero-san is strong_, the boy thought as he observed the said girl. She was looking at the bickering Gokudera and Yamamoto with a sad but warm smile. _She is able to smile even after being experimented on_. The brunet blinked a few times as he recognized the expression on her face.

Melancholy and longing.

The girl never had a normal past, maybe that is why she looked at the two 'friends' who were having an argument. She probably never had a chance to play with, she probably never got the chance to feel the warmth of a loving family… Tsuna swallowed the weird feeling in his throat as he tried to imagine a life without his mother. It would have been a horrible life…

"I-I'm sorry for that Zero-san." He said while looking at his half-eaten bento

"It is fine…"

"Ah my name is Sawada Tsunayoshi, but call me Tsuna." He introduced himself as he remembered that he never introduced himself to the girl before. He was a bit embarrassed that he asked a difficult question to a younger girl who didn't even know his name.

"Sure Tsuna-san. The past is in the past, the only thing I should do now is looking forward to the future." The girl smiled at him. "Just know that not everyone in the mafia is bad, Tsuna-san. And if you think that your Famiglia is bad, just fight to change that."

_That… kind of makes sense, T_suna thought. But he still didn't want to become the decimo, the life of a Mafiosi is dangerous after all.

""By the way, what is 'illuminati'?"" they both asked at the same time. The brunet and albino looked at each other in surprise and burst out laughing.

…

Class was over in a breeze and I couldn't really complain. It was more eventful and way funnier than the Estraneo lessons… _yeah, I can't complain_, I thought as I remembered the boring lessons with the mad scientists.

"Hey, Estraneo-chan?" a girl with brown hair and golden eyes asked. I looked up at the cute girl. "Can we call you Zero-chan?" she asked. _What was her name again_, I know that I heard it before… Sawada? No that is Tsuna. I'm sure that it was something with the 'Sa' though. Sa-kura… Sa-rada… Sa-Sa..sa..gawa? That was it!

"Sure, Sasagawa-san" I smiled.

"You can just call me Kyoko" she smiled back, somehow an image of flowers could be seen behind her back. _That is an interesting skill…_

"And this is my best friend Hana" she added as she introduced me to the taller girl behind her. The black haired girl observed me for a while before she gave me a small smile. I got the feeling that she didn't really like children… and I could be considered a child now.

"Nice to meet you too Hana-san" I nodded politely at her. I smiled brighter as she nodded back… maybe she decided to give me a chance. And then the wave of people came. Most of the girls and boys were suddenly surrounding me and started asking questions.

"Where do you live?"

"What is your family like? …do you have an older brother?"

"… or an elder sister?" I sweatdropped at the questions, they didn't even give me time to answer.

"And _that_ Dame-tsuna, is how you effectively use mafia-seduction" Reborn said.

_Hey! I'm not seducing anyone!_

…

**Omake: this morning**

I would have been happy to go to school… if I didn't have to carry the extra documents around. Both Chris and uncle Seth were too… overprotective. They wouldn't let me leave the estate without the many documents about my health, supposed-to-be-weak-bones, enrolment to Nanimori-middle and… many other documents.

"RUN TO SCHOOL TO THE EXTREME" someone shouted excited as the white haired blur passed me, leaving sand dusting after the figure. _Was that Knuckle? _I shook my head. _Come on Zero, you are probably still tired from the jetlag that made you hallucinate yesterday too_. I tried to calm down and continued walking to school.

All the paperwork I was forced to do since yesterday must have made my eyes tired, so I'm sure that I didn't _really_ see Knuckle. I couldn't be him after all…

I almost convinced myself that I was tired and not going crazy when I reached the school grounds. I would actually be convinced if I didn't feel a familiar presence approaching me. All my instincts told me to run, but I was frozen to the ground instead. I once promised myself to never forget this presence… after all I would have been _beaten to death_ if I did forget.

"Herbivore, for trespassing the school grounds, I will bite you to death." An eerily familiar voice said. Bad memories flowed in and I shivered in horror.

_Alaude_.

With instincts which just awakened because of the memories I dodged a deadly tonfa-strike. _Barely_.

"W-wait! I shouted when I got the chance to. "I'm not trespassing, I've got the documents here!" I retrieved the said documents from my bag as fast as I could and gave in to the person who tried to hit me. I wasn't even surprised anymore when I saw his Alaude-like face. The voice and presence were enough to make me relive some past trauma's.

"Hn… you can go handicapped herbivore." He said after reading them quickly. "Go before I change my mind…" and I ran for my life. _Literally_.

_Why do I keep on encountering lookalikes?_

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**First of all I apologize to those who expected a warm reunion between Zero and Reborn. I thought that this would be a natural reaction because Zero died before Reborn became an acrobaleno… I won't reveal all the secrets here now! (Those will come later in the story.) Secondly, I decided to follow the manga. Maybe I will throw in some stuff from the anime too, but I will be mainly following the manga. And for those who are confused about Hibari 'and letting her go'… it is because of the documents, this is the only hint I will give. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 7: food and questions

"What are in your rice balls?" Kyoko asked. I looked at my plate, the five rice balls were… _barely _recognizable but probably edible.

"Rice?" I answered hesitantly. I could cook, _really_, my mind just gets blank whenever I'm cooking. Most of the time the food becomes unrecognizable because of that… so even _I _never knew what I cooked until I tasted it myself. My actually cooking tastes pretty good… if you ignored the appearance. At least the food is still a bit recognizable this time…

"Hana-san… why are the girls so excited?" I asked when I noticed that he girls other than Kyoko and Hana were, indeed, excited.

"Because we have to give the food to the monkeys… Stupid teacher." she scowled. _Monkeys? _Right, Hana calls the boys monkeys… wait boys? _O joy, really?_ We have to give them to the boys? I scowled too…

"O don't pout Zero-chan, your rice balls are fine" Kyoko flower-smiled. I guess that my scowl looked like a pout, or she is just plain oblivious…

"So, who are you giving your rice balls to?" Hana teased.

"Hmm… I just transferred, so probably the one who asks me first." I answered. Hana shook her head in response.

"That _seems_ to be the best thing to do, but you should choose someone to give it to… after all you're cute. You're going to get mobbed by those monkeys." She said. I scowled again, _I'm not that cute_… and the boys would be pedophiles if they liked me like that! I'm just ten physically! And she was joking about getting mobbed right?

_Right?_

…

We almost reached our class when I realized that I left my rice balls behind.

"Why didn't you warn me earlier Hana-san?" I pouted. She smirked.

"I just wanted to see how long it would take before you realized."

"Kufufufu, prepare for revenge in the near future." I half joked before I ran back to the kitchen. _Hmm who is that? _I thought as a woman with pink hair walked past me. She was clearly too young to be a teacher but too old to attend a middle school… I shrugged and ignored her to get my rice balls. I returned to the classroom immediately after retrieving them and I was halfway there when the woman passed by again.

"Damn you tenth Vongola. But I will, one day, bring back Reborn" she muttered. _Was she talking about Reborn?_ _And where does she want to bring Reborn_ _back to?_ I ignored the topic before I would forget about the rice balls and opened the door to the classroom. When I opened the door I saw… total chaos. The boys were sending death glares at Tsuna and the said teen was standing in the middle of the classroom… while wearing only his boxers. Why- no I don't want to know why he stripped.

"Hmm guys, what happened?" I asked no one in particular. The entire class turned around to see me standing at the door. The temperature in the class dropped as the boys spotted the rice balls and suddenly I was reminded about what Hana said about getting mobbed.

"PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR RICE BALLS" the boys asked in almost perfect unison. I blinked in surprise… _is this what Hana warned me for?_

"Well… I'm sorry? I wanted to give my rice balls to… my friends." I said. The boys looked defeated and I hurried to Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto. "Please take these before I'm mobbed." I whispered "And Tsuna-san… you should wear something… warmer than this" Tsuna blushed and ran away to, hopefully, find some clothes.

"Maa maa, thanks Zero-chan"

"Sure" Gokudera and Yamamoto said while they both picked a rice ball. Three rice balls left… I looked around in panic, I _really_ didn't want to get mobbed by the boys. Luckily enough Tsuna, fully clothed, and Reborn with his chameleon, Leon, on his fedora returned before they got the chance to mob me. _Wait since when was Reborn at school?_ I shrugged, well lucky for me then.

"Here Tsuna-san… and Reborn-san too" one rice ball left… The weird aura in the class intensified. I panicked, who should I give the rice ball to? I looked around the class, the boys looked like they were ready to mob me already. I panicked even more and did the only thing I could think of… _run away_.

…

Only when I reached the rooftop I stopped running. _Why are the boys these days so obsessed with rice balls?_ I wondered as I closed the door to the roof to avoid an unwanted encounter. Only then I relaxed… or not.

My instincts warned me of danger and I turned around as quickly as I could when I felt the familiar presence… and almost screamed in horror when I saw a certain prefect.

"What are you doing here while you should be in class, handicapped herbivore?" he threated… or asked. I don't know…

"W-well…" I started awkwardly "I-I ran away from the classroom because the boys want to m-mob me for the last rice ball." I said as I raised the plate with the said rice ball as a proof. "I'm afraid that I can't return to class before I get rid of this, b-but according to the teacher we have to give the rice balls to one of the boys…" I sighed.

_Wait where is it gone?_ I stared at the empty plate in confusion. Did he just… I looked at the prefect who was eating my rice ball with mixed emotions. Grateful, because he saved me from getting mobbed. Embarrassment, because he probably thought that I was offering the rice ball to him. And absolute horror, because I was afraid of the reaction the Alaude-lookalike would give me. Alaude _hated_ my cooking after all, and he would always try to beat me to death when I offered him food. Terrified of the memories I did what my brains suggested me to do. Run away_,_ _again_…

…

"Hey Zero, how was school?" Chris asked when he noticed me. I gave him a please-don't-ask-me look and walked in my room. _What is this?_

"Sorry boss, more paperwork has arrived from Italy." Seth said when he walked by. I blinked a few times and cried silent tears as I started working on the mountains of paperwork.

After working like forever on the mountains of paperwork I gave up and walked to the kitchen for some hot chocolate to cheer up a bit. The paperwork made me depressed after all… When I reached the kitchen I opened the drawer which should have contained the cocoa, but it was empty. I was about to ask Chris or Seth about it when I noticed a yellow sticky memo on the fridge.

_Zero/boss,_

_We are out for a bit, we have to buy some stuff.  
We are back soon.  
Don't leave the house.  
Ps. Sorry, but the we have no cocoa left. _

_Chris &amp; Joseph_

I considered my options. Either stay home and drink _illusionary_ hot chocolate or go out and buy cocoa, with the risk of getting scolded…

I'm able to create hot chocolate with real illusions… but real hot chocolate tastes better. So I decided to leave the house and buy some cocoa, after all I _needed_ it! After I got dressed properly I left the building which was Verde's former-lab. The house seemed too small for a lab but the _actual_ lab was located in various levels underground, so the lab was bigger than anyone could imagine when they saw the green house.

I wonder if Verde painted the house green because of his name, or if he simply liked the color…

While enjoying the walk I thought about the events of last week. I never expected to see any lookalike from my past... apart from my little student. And then we also have Reborn who most definitely is Renato's son and… I stopped walking in horror. _Will I run into more people I knew from my past life's?_

I shivered at the thought of meeting certain people, or their relatives… _hell_ even their acquaintances.

I tried to calm down a bit when I reached the mini-market and walked in. _I really need the hot chocolate now_, I thought as I looked for the cocoa. _Here it is…_ out of my reach. The box was on a shelf that I couldn't reach without a chair,_ damn my height!_ I tried to get it while I jumped, but it didn't really work.

"Hahaha, what are you trying to do Estraneo-midget?" Someone laughed behind me. I turned around and blushed in embarrassment when I saw Gokudera who was holding a watermelon.

"Can't you see" I said as neutral as I could "I'm trying to get the cocoa." Gokudera laughed again.

"You won't be able to reach it when you're this short, midget." He said with a smug smile. I was planning on kicking him but he gave me one of the boxes before I could. I accepted the box gratefully.

"Thanks" I smiled the smile which let flowers appear behind me. After observing Kyoko a few times I finally mastered this skill. It was actually pretty easy and damn effective on adults… and pedophiles I guess. Gokudera simply shrugged and walked away.

…

After looking around a little longer, I paid the cashier and started on my way back to home. But when I while I was walking, a person dashed past me. _Was that Gokudera?_ I thought as I recognized the grey hair.

"Hieee Gokudera!" Tsuna shouted as he ran past me too. _What was that? _I looked in the direction they ran to and in the direction they came from. Either I could return home and work on my paperwork again or I could find out what happened that made the duo run away _this_ fast_… _

_Well it won't hurt to check it out,_ I shrugged as I walked in the direction they came from. I stopped in my tracks when I saw the pink haired woman from a few days ago.

"Who are you and what do you want?" she asked after observing me for a while.

"I'm Estraneo Zero…" the woman gave me a glare. "I'm from the _Neo_ Estraneo. Not Estraneo but _Neo_ Estraneo." I added quickly. The glare softened and she smiled.

"My name is Bianchi, please come in." She said as she led me in the house. _Did I just follow a stranger in their house?_ I asked myself as Bianchi walked to the kitchen.

"Are you hungry?" Bianchi asked. I nodded as I forgot to eat breakfast because of the paperwork and she smiled at me. "I will prepare something for you then, please sit down." I nodded again and sat down in one of the chairs.

"Ciaossu Zero, what are you doing here?" Reborn in a casual yukata asked. If Reborn is here… then this is where Tsuna lives? But then I didn't follow a stranger in their house, but I followed a stranger in a friend's house instead… _How confusing._

"I don't know actually… I was simply going buy some cocoa and on my way home I ran into Gokudera-san and Tsuna-san. They were running as if their life's depended on it, so I wanted to know what happened. And then Bianchi invited me in… so here I am." I answered, still confused. Reborn accepted my explanation and sat down in the seat across me.

_Should_ _I ask about brother?_

"Hmm Reborn…do you know… what do you know about me?" I changed my mind in the last moment and asked another question instead. One of my personal rules is to never mention a past life to another person after all… even if they are, probably, family.

"A lot, but not enough" he admitted.

"Well, you may ask me questions if I can ask you questions too…" I still wanted to know some stuff about Renato after all. Reborn didn't answer so I decided to give him a little push "You don't have to answer If you don't want to." I smiled.

"That's acceptable…" He nodded. "Then, _subject 00_, how did you escape the Estraneo?"

"I escaped during the Estraneo massacre, I was in a different 'area' at the time. My uncles took me with them while they escaped." I answered.

"How much do you know about my past… about me being experimented on?"

"Everything I need to know and yet not enough." He frowned. "Where did you learn to cook?" I stared at Reborn in confusion, I expected him to ask about the experiments… why did he want to know _that._ Reborn guessed my thoughts and answered the silent question. "I once knew someone who cooked food that tasted around the same as your rice ball."

"Hmm… I never learned how to cook, I simply could… or I did learn it but I can't remember." I answered truthfully after pondering for a while. _Where did I learn it indeed?_

"Who is the one you're reminded of?"

"My little sister." Wait Reborn has a little sister?

"Little sister?" I wondered out loud. _My brother has two children?_ Bianchi who was cooking flinched and turned around to look at Reborn with concern.

"She died" He said. I could feel myself frown at the tone he used. Reborn sounded like he blamed himself for his sisters' death. _But_ _he shouldn't blame himself_… I'm sure that it wasn't his fault. And _if_ it was his fault she would forgive him, at least _I_ would have forgiven him…

I quickly changed topics to distract him and myself.

"My Famiglia consists of a lot of inventors and scientists though I am horrible in technology myself. I honestly don't know why they still follow me… But they _do_ turn to me if they want to change the design of their invention" I smiled fondly, it was nice when I actually did something for my Famiglia. It made me feel less useless. My past knowledge about weapons crafting were useful for the designs and creativity was a must for an illusionist…

Reborn smirked. "Creativity is a must for illusionists indeed." He said. _Did he just read my mind? _"Yes, I mastered the art of mind reading." So Renato taught Reborn the skill that he _tried_ to teach me too?

"So you read their expressions and connect them to the mood around them?" I grinned. Reborn grinned too. I should practice this skill more, I was never good at mindreading but I can't let my nephew become a better mind reader than me right?

Bianchi laid a plate before me before she sat down next to Reborn. _She's giving him a weird look_, I thought as I started to eat. It's surprisingly good… _but_ _why is the food… purple?_

"Hmm Bianchi-san… what did you just cook?" I asked a bit suspicious of the food.

"An omelet." _An omelet?_ It looks more like…

…

At least it tastes good…

"Thanks, it tastes great" I smiled before I started eating again.

…

**Omake: after eating**

"Zero-chan?" I began. She looked up to me. "Why aren't you poisoned?" I asked. For some unknown reasons all the food I cooked was poisoned, even if I didn't want it to be. The girl looked down at her now empty plate before looking back into my eyes.

"Did you poison the food?" She asked confused. I regretted cooking for her immediately, _why did I want to cook for her again?_

"It's alright Bianchi-san, you didn't do it intentionally" She answered with a smile. Somehow there were flowers in the background. _How did she know?_

"Because you weren't hostile when you were offering the food or when you were cooking." She answered my silent question. "Don't worry though, I'm immune to poison." I stared in her eyes. Her pale eyes were warm and showed no resent, _she forgave me?_

"Of course" she answered another silent question. "And it tastes great!" she added. Her warm smile reassured me and warmed my heart… _I can understand why her Famiglia would follow her…_

"Maybe I should stop trying to read minds, it's too troublesome" I heard her mutter. And I chuckled in amusement.

_I get the feeling that we could become great friends._

**Hey guys, doubbley here.**

**First of all, I'm updating this chapter a bit earlier than planned (so sorry if the storyline is a bit messy this time) because I can't update for a little while. Maybe for a week… or two. (I'm not sure). Secondly I read that there were a few things which were a bit confusing and I would love to explain… but why should I if there is someone else who can explain it better? **  
"Kufufufu. Hello everyone."  
**Hey Zero! Well let's start with the first topic… Zero was experimented (on) by the Estraneo… what do you have to say about it Zero?  
**"Hmm, I was indeed experimented on… but I am an experiment myself too. the Estraneo Famiglia created me from nothing…"  
**Ok, I hope that this topic is cleared for now, I will explain more in the future chapters :). Next topic… She became something like a teacher to Mukuro…  
**"Well at least_ I_ consider him my student… I'm not sure if he sees me as his teacher,"  
**But you **_**did**_** teach him?  
**"Yes I did teach him a lot about the mist flames and illusions…"  
**Then you were indeed something like a teacher. Ok next topic… She meets Primo and his guardians…  
**"Hmm, this one is partially incorrect. You see, for an unknown reason I'm _always_ reborn after I die and I keep my memories from my past life's ... I actually met Primo and his guardians in one of those past life's, not in my current one…"  
**More of Zero's past life's will come back in future chapters and I hope that this topic is cleared too now. Let's go on with the next topic… She becomes the boss of the Neo Estraneo Famiglia…  
**"This one is partially right, after all I _am_ the boss but I didn't simply _become_ the boss. I was the one who founded it (with the help of Verde). So I now am the Primo of the Neo Estraneo…"  
**Thank you for your help with explaining some topics Zero :)  
**"Kufufufu. It was my pleasure, arrivederci!"  
**Arrivederci Zero! *waits until she is gone. Ok now the last topic… She is the sister of Reborn?:  
As zero explained earlier, she remembers her past life's and in the life **_**before**_** she became subject 00 she was indeed Reborn's younger sister. I will write more about it in the future, but I can tell you **_**now**_** that Zero doesn't think that Reborn is **_**actually**_** her brother because she thinks that he is her brother's son…  
I hope that you understand it now TheKurove, don't be afraid to ask me questions if you don't understand things (other people as well). I will answer the questions I can answer, otherwise everything will be explained in the story :). Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 8: inventions

After eating I helped Bianchi to clean the dishes, we had an awkward conversation about cooking too. It was mostly awkward because everything _she_ cooked would turn out poisonous, I never knew it would be possible, and because _I_ was cooking without knowing what I was doing... Anyways, Reborn decided to take a dip in the little pool in the backyard and left us bonding in the kitchen.

At first I was bombarded by questions about love, Bianchi wanted to know everything about my possible love life. She asked me questions about my uncles, how old are they, what do they looked like and if they are nice. And then about my Famiglia-members, are there people around your age, how do they look like and are they nice.

After that she told stuff about Reborn, I found out that she had a rather big crush on the hitman and that the said hitman had three girlfriends before Bianchi… _he had more girlfriends than Renato had at his age…_ and the worst thing is that she almost gave me _the talk_… I could only avoid the topic by using my 'interest' in her poison cooking to distract Bianchi.

The said woman decided to bake a cake because of that. And I had to admit, I still don't know how her food turned poisonous. She cooked like any other person and the ingredients were normal too. _Right? _ Anyways, her cake turned out purple and poisonous… somehow it was even scarier than her omelet.

"How did this happen?" I wondered out loud. Bianchi looked defeated.

"I will probably never be able to cook normal food, this one is even more poisonous than the omelet…" she sighed. I looked at the cake, the smoke it emitted looked… dangerous at least and the purple color didn't exactly look healthy either.

"It will be fine… And even if you won't be able to cook normally, I will always volunteer as a taste-tester" I smiled. After all I am immune to poison and the omelet she made tasted great.

"Thanks Zero-chan" she smiled as she started to decorate the cake.

"Hmm, Bianchi-san?"

"Yes Zero-chan?"

"…Why are you decorating the cake?"

"This way there is still an use for the cake."

"…Sure." I sweatdropped. An use for the cake… _But the only use I can think of is…_ I looked at the smoke which darkened as Bianchi continued decorating and decided that I didn't want to know.

"Do you want to help Zero-chan?"

"…I think that I'd rather watch."

…

"Bianchi, come. Look over here!" Tsuna shouted from the backyard. _When did he come back?_ I thought as Bianchi took her now decorated cake with her to the backyard. _Well… it doesn't really matter_, I shrugged and followed her.

"I don't like to be forced but I will tutor you soon… _Romeo_?" she asked surprised. I looked past her… _Lampo? _

No! Nope! _Noooo!_ Please, _please_ say that it's _just_ a lookalike. Not him or someone who acts like him. _Please_. I'm not mentally prepared for that!

"Zero! Wh-" The Lampo-lookalike started to shout, but he was interrupted by a louder shout.

"Romeo! You're alive!" Bianchi shouted as she ran to the Lampo-lookalike. Then her expression did a 180 change and she practically _threw_ the cake in his face. "Poison cooking II!"

The teen made a choking sound as the cake hit him and fell unconscious. _What did just happen?_

"Lambo! Stay awake! Don't sleep! Please cry!" Tsuna shouted in horror. _Not only a Lampo-lookalike… but also a Lampo-name-soundalike_, I deadpanned. _This can't end up well…_

"Maybe with the medical skills ten years later he will be saved." Reborn said nonchalantly. I looked at the hitman in confusion.

"What do you mean with ten years later, Reborn-san?"

"Ciaossu Zero. As the boss of an inventors-Famiglia you should have heard of the ten years bazooka right?"

"The ten years bazooka?" I wondered out loud. _Where did I hear that before?_

…

_Flashback_

"Good afternoon Zero."

"Good afternoon to you too Verde, are you bothering my Famiglia again?"

"No… something like that. This time I want to borrow some of your people for a project…"

"You will have to ask _them_ not me… What kind of project is it?"

"A time machine. I call it the ten years bazooka."

"Let me guess… a bazooka that let you travel ten years in the future?"

"Something like that."

…

… So Verde succeeded?

"Hieee Zero since when are you here?"

"Kufufufu... Since the very beginning Tsuna, since the very beginning…"

…

"Uncle Seth? Uncle Chris? I'm back!" I shouted while I mentally prepared myself for the scolding that I would most likely receive… _though I could avoid it by distracting them_.

"Where were you?" Chris shouted worried and angry as he reached me in no time.

"Kufufufu. Don't worry uncle Chris. I just went shopping and I visited my friend on my way back…" I began. "Do you perhaps know someone called Bianchi in the mafia?"

"Well… wait are you talking about _the hitman_ Poison Scorpion Bianchi?" he asked "Why do you want to know about her?"

"So she _is_ a hitman…" I mused while I walked to the kitchen, leaving Chris speechless in the hall.

_Distraction successful._

After leaving the stuff I bought in the kitchen and wondering where Seth was, I went to one of basements where my personal workplace was located. Normally I worked on my paperwork in my own room, but I left most of the unfinished documents in the workplace. Sitting down on my soft chair in front of my desk I picked one pens and one of the many documents from my desk to read. The paperwork must be done after all. While twirling the pen in my left hand I read the cover of the document.

_Reality Illusion Gloves_

…_Damn I forgot about the experiment that I promised Verde to do!_ I mentally scolded myself as I threw my pen on the desk and ran up the stairs to the basement where Seth would most likely be. The one with the most medical… objects. Both Chris and I didn't even want to know where the suspicious equipment was used for…

"Uncle Seth! We still have to- I will come back later…" I stated as I saw the grown man throw some suspicious liquids in a big black cauldron. I recognized some of the liquids as the contents of the vials which were usually attached to his belt. Seth used those vials as a replacement for explosives because they were just as explosive as dynamites and because 'dynamites are just sticks filled with gunpowder'.

Anyways, Seth has a weird habit of mixing those rather dangerous and explosive liquids in a black cauldron whenever he was stressed. An unfortunate scientist of my Famiglia once asked him about this habit while he was still throwing stuff in the cauldron and the result… let's say it wasn't pleasant, both for Koenig and the witnesses. They were scarred for life.

Right now I could either drop the subject and do the experiment later or risk the same fate as Koenig.

…

…

_The experiment can wait for another day…_

…

"Where were you yesterday, midget?" Gokudera asked when I sat down in my seat next to him. I gave him an amused look, I was testing Verde's invention. It was a successful experiment as the mist flames created real weapons which didn't disappear for an hour after dissolving the flames… But he didn't need to know that.

"Kufufufu, did you miss me?"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, MIDGET?"

"Good morning to you too Gokudera." I flower-smiled. He shut up immediately and turned his face to the other side of the classroom. Grumbling something about 'no respect to their elders'.

"Maa maa, you should calm down" Yamamoto laughed.

"Kufufufu" I laughed too before paying attention to the lesson which just started.

"… And now the summer vacation begins!" Chinatsu-sensei said at the end of the school day. Various classmates started to cheer while a few others stayed quiet. I turned my head to Tsuna and my grin disappeared when I saw his face. _That's right_, _he has to take extra classes._ Poor Tsuna… and Yamamoto too, though he didn't look sad at all.

"Hmm, Yamamoto-san? Aren't you upset about having classes even though it's summer vacation?" I asked.

"Maa maa, don't worry about me Zero-chan" he laughed. "It will be fun and I will have too much free time for myself even with those classes haha. But what are _you_ going to do in your vacation Zero-chan?"

"I'm going to visit my Famiglia- I meant family in Italy" I beamed. "I haven't seen them for a long time already and I'm worried about them even though my friend in Italy keeps updating me about what is happening there so now and then…"

"Your family sounds fun" Yamamoto chuckled when he saw my excited reaction. "I would like to meet them somewhere in the future."

"Kufufufu, they are…" I laughed sheepishly. "And I'm sure that you will. You guys too Tsuna-san, Gokudera-san, I'm sure that you will meet them somewhere in the future and Reborn-san too."

_Though I don't think that my Famiglia is ready for another genius baby yet…_

…

"BOSS!" Various voices shouted when I stepped out the car.

"It's nice to be back everyone." I grinned. "How did your projects process while I was gone?" Between the complaints and reports of both successful and unsuccessful experiments I could hear someone complain rather loudly.

"He blew up the third lab! And repaired it immediately afterwards… But he destroyed a part of the Neo Estraneo grounds! _Again!_" I shook my head when I recognized the voice, Verde did this many times and especially to his lab. Barging in the Neo Estraneo base and tormenting the members was probably his new hobby.

"As long as he repairs the damage it's fine Innocenti, keep up the hard work… O hey Spanner!" I called when I saw the only person in my Famiglia who was around my age, though he was still four years older.

"Good to see you Nemo." The blonde teen grinned.

"I told you to call me Zero right?" I pouted. He thought that calling me Zero was too informal, but he also thought that calling me Neo Estraneo Primo was too troublesome. So he combined **N**eo **E**straneo Pri**mo** into Nemo… which sounds even more informal than Zero in my opinion. _And fishy… _And the worst part is that everyone in the towns around the base knows me as Nemo now!

"Sure, _Nemo_. How was Japan, amazing right?" He chuckled. I sighed in defeat, _why did I even bother with asking him?_ He never called me Zero in the three years that I've known him...

"Actually… you were right Japan _is_ amazing, kufufufu. We brought some souvenirs for you guys from Japan… don't worry, they're just some materials you guys can use for your experiments. No… useless stuff this time." I smiled as I saw their blank expressions. They weren't happy with the useless statues that Seth brought back last time. I still wonder where he bought the dragon statues… and how he brought them with him without Chris or me noticing anything. The statues were now located all over the base to the distaste of most of my Famiglia members and Verde.

"And here you go Spanner" I laughed as I tossed him the sack with candies. "These are my personal favorites, now tell me about those blueprints that you managed to secure, did you decipher them already?" The other scientists and inventors chuckled at our excited conversation and returned to their own experiments in the base after taking their share of souvenirs.

"Well, it seems that they are the earlier designs for a kind of giant robot called… I don't quite remember the name. it was something with 'fly' if I remember it well." he beamed as we started to walk to the building. "It looks like that they tried to make a flame resistant robot as it uses flames as fuel, but it didn't work as they wanted according to the notes. Now I'm trying to build these robots, but _without_ flames as fuel. And-"

"Some help would be appreciated" Chris interrupted Spanner. When I turned around I could see the don't-mess-with-my-daughter-look that he was giving my friend while he gestured to the unwell healthcare companion.

"Kufufufu" I chuckled. _It's great to see my Famiglia again._

_Now, let's start working…_

…

**Omake: at a later date**

**BOOOOOM**

"Damn it, Spanner! This is the third time already!" My boss shouted from the other side of the door. I chuckled softly as I opened the door. The white haired girl turned around in her chair while twirling a pencil around in her left hand.

"This time it was someone else Nemo. I'm done with my experiments for today, what are _you_ doing now though?" I asked when I saw the many piles of paper on her desk.

"Hmm another weapon design…"

"Flame resistant? I still don't understand how it works." I admitted as I put a piece of candy in my mouth, boss made the most interesting _authentic_ weapons and she didn't notice that _those_ weapons made the Famiglia famous. The said boss grinned and pulled a page from one of the many piles of paper and waved it. I took the paper when I reached her desk and leaned on one of the designs-covered walls.

"You don't need to understand it, the only thing you need to know is that flame resistant weapons are normal weapons until you activate your flames. Then the weapon gets interesting..." I stared at the design of the blade on the page. On the back of the page were notes about the weapon but I didn't even think of _trying_ to read it. I wouldn't understand it anyways.

"I sometimes wonder where you got this knowledge from Nemo…" I muttered as I gave the sheet of paper back to its owner. The design was nothing like the blueprints we made for our inventions, it looked too simple and yet too complex for that.

"Kufufufu, I learned it from an old man who was tending sheep."

"…You are kidding right Nemo?"

_Right?_

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I'm back! So… anyone missed me? Thanks for the follows and favourites! I never expected anyone to read this to begin with… and thanks for the reviews! Kufufufu anyways, I had to introduce Lambo and what would be a better first impression than this? I wonder what he was going to say… but that is for me to know and for you guys to find out kufufufu. And who expected Spanner to be in the Neo Estraneo? Not me in the beginning… but I wanted someone in the Famiglia who was around the same age as Zero. Seriously, it isn't healthy to be surrounded by adults for too long… And for the flame resistant weapons: they are weapons which do not melt when fused with flames and which uses the flames for a power-up or something like that... Anyways** **thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 9: first meetings

"Zero-chan!"

"Good morning Kyoko-san"

"How was your vacation Zero-chan?" Kyoko asked.

"It was great! I visited my Famigli-family and alli- I mean friends in Italy and I almost finished all my paperwo-homework. How was your vacation?" Smooth Zero, you almost revealed the fact that you are in the mafia…

"It was fun, Hana-chan, onii-chan and I had a great time together." She smiled. Onii-chan? Doesn't that mean brother?

"You have a brother Kyoko-san?"

"O I haven't introduced him to you yet." She said before she pushed me forwards. "Let's introduce you guys."

"Kufufufu, sure Kyoko-san…" I laughed, but then I saw her brother. _The Knuckle-lookalike_. I actually forgot to think for a while as I accidentally said the taboo word.

"Are you a boxer?" I blurted out and I groaned inwardly._ I should get ready for-_

"Yes TO THE EXTREME! And are you Kyoko's friend?" the white haired teen asked.

_the extreme headache… _

"E-Estraneo Zero… nice to meet you?"

"Onii-chan, this is the friend I was talking about." Kyoko said. The said brother looked intensely at me before he grinned.

"It's nice to meet you TO THE EXTREME. My name is Sasagawa Ryohei, Kyoko's brother! And you can EXTREMELY call me onii-san or Ryohei nii-san." He said. I sweatdropped. Is the 'TO THE EXTREME' hereditary? If so I know his ancestor… _No it can't be_, I shook my head in confusion. _Priests normally don't get children right?_

"Sure… nice to meet you Ryohei nii-san." _Why is he asking me to call him brother anyways?_ I thought as I tilted my head in confusion.

"Look it's Dame-Tsuna" someone snapped me out of my confusion. I turned around to greet my friend… _where are his clothes? _I blinked as he ran past us and literally dragged Ryohei with him.

"W-what happened just now?" I muttered. _Did Tsuna strip agai- no, was that a dying will flame?_ Kyoko simply giggled and picked her brother's bag from the ground.

"Come let's catch up"

"Sure Kyoko-san…" I nodded. _Maybe it was my imagination._

…

_So it wasn't my imagination_, I mused as Kyoko, Gokudera and Yamamoto cheered for Tsuna. Tsuna just stripped after getting shot by reborn and was fightin- no _boxing_ with Ryohei… with dying will-flames on their foreheads. I stared at the flames on Tsuna's forehead. Sky flames if my eyes aren't deceiving me… and pure ones too. They kind of reminded me of Giotto's flames, but they somehow bothered me. I got the feeling that something was… wrong with those flames. I had this feeling when I observed Tsuna for the first time too…

"Ciaossu Zero, how was Italy?" Reborn with an elephant hat interrupted my train of thoughts.

"Hello Reborn-san. Well, it was nice to see my Famiglia again. And they were quite… proud because I 'secured' an alliance with one of the most powerful Famiglia's in the world…" I answered. Proud was quite the understatement if you asked me though…

"The alliance is official now." I continued. "I contacted the Vongola Nono in Italy, he was quite… accepting." I frowned as I remembered our meeting. I expected the old man to be wary of me because I was too… young for being a mafia boss. He was, of course, suspicious of me, but the suspicion disappeared faster than I expected. I also expected the meeting to be more intimidating, but it was like the first meeting between Giotto and the Primo of the Chiavarone Famiglia.

Beautifully _awkward_.

The only difference were the people who were meeting each other and the reason of the awkwardness. While the first meeting between Giotto and Caius was awkward because of an certain incident that involved 'pink hair dye' and 'genetic clumsiness', our meeting was awkward because the older man stared at me. The whole meeting long.

At first the stare he gave me looked as suspicious of me as I expected him to be, after a while his stare turned respectful and after that his stare got a weird glint. _I wonder why he looked so hopeful…_

"Well that was to be expected." Reborn nodded. "The Neo Estraneo I is one of the most famous rising Famiglia's right now. The weapons of your Famiglia are some of the most popular items in the mafia-world after all." He stated. I tilted my head in confusion.

"We aren't _that_ famous right?" I asked but Reborn only grinned. Were we that famous already? But even if we were… "Even _if_ we are that famous, it doesn't explain his behavior" I stated.

"It's that and the fact that you're around the same age as his successor." Reborn corrected me. So because I'm around the same age as Tsuna, he acted so weird around me? That doesn't explain his hopeful look. Unless… _unless_. No way right? He wasn't considering me as a possible marriage candidate for Tsuna… right?

_Right?_

"In fact he is still considering you as a possible mafia wife." Reborn said after reading my mind again.

…

The young boy looked around as he tried to find his way back to his current home. He only went out to chase the black bird, but now the way lost him. He refused to admit that he was the one who lost the way. The great Lambo-sama never gets lost after all… but what if the way never found him again?

"E-endure." He muttered as he felt tears welling up in his eyes. Ignoring the urge to pull out his bazooka he looked down at the ground. _Stupid way, did you have to lose me?_

"Hmm? Are you lost little boy?" a warm voice asked. The small boy looked up at the girl who was squatting in front of him and stared at her pale purple eyes. They were pretty and somehow resembled the eyes of his late grandmother. Those big eyes showed the same concern and warmth as hers and in a weird way the same maturity, though the girl couldn't be as old as his grandmother.

"Lambo-sama is not lost! The way lost him!" Lambo shouted after he managed to look away from the eyes.

"Kufufufu, sure Lambo-kun. Now, could you tell me where you live? Maybe I can help you."

"Lambo-sama is told to never talk to a stranger." The boy pouted as he remembered Nana's warning him about the danger of strangers.

"Well, my name is Zero and I know that your name is Lambo. So we aren't strangers anymore right?" Zero smiled. Lambo stared at the white haired girl as she stood up and offered him a hand.

"Actually, I don't want to go home yet. Do you want some ice cream too?"

…

Not long after buying the ice creams we were sitting in a park nearby. I enjoyed the cold treat as I tried to find out why the kid was so familiar. His cow themed outfit was familiar too… I didn't notice that I was staring until Lambo got some ice cream on his nose.

"Kufufufu, Lambo-kun you have some ice cream on your nose." I chuckled as I picked my handkerchief, that Chris insisted me on always taking it with me, and attempted to wipe the ice cream from his nose.

"LAMBO!" A familiar voice shouted. I looked up at Tsuna who ran to Lambo in panic after I wiped the sticky substance away.

"Where were you?! Don't leave so suddenly!"

"Hello to you too, Tsuna-san." I sweatdropped at the teen who jumped up in surprise when he noticed me.

"Hieee! Since when are you here Zero-san?"

"Kufufufu." His reactions are kind of interesting… "Since a while ago Tsuna-san, right Lambo-kun?"

"That is right Dame-Tsuna! Zero-nee has been with me since the way lost me!" The boy smiled.

"Don't you mean that you lost the way?" Tsuna sweatdropped.

"No the way lost me!"

"Ciaossu Zero."

"Hello Reborn-san." I greeted the hitman who appeared out of nowhere. Somehow I wasn't surprised at his sudden appearance, he probably built secret paths somewhere all over the town like Renato would have done. A hitman must always be prepared and Reborn was, probably, my brother's son after all.

"What are you doing while your uncles are looking for you?"

"…Taking a break from paperwork?" _I was almost done after all_.

"Baka-Zero, you shouldn't run away from your duties as a boss." Reborn scolded me as he hit my head softly.

"Hey don't hurt my subordinate!" Lambo shouted when he saw me getting hit. I sheepishly rubbed the spot where I was hit and turned to the kid.

"It doesn't hu-"

"Like I said Zero, you shouldn't ru-"

"Don't ignore me!"

"Watch out!" Tsuna shouted as he saw Lambo getting some grenades from his hair and throw them in the air in record-speed. I stared at the afro in surprise, _what the hell does this kid put in his hair? _No wait! This isn't the time to wonder about that!

"Hieee watch out!" Tsuna panicked as the grenades flew to Reborn… and me who was standing right behind him. But before I could even blink in surprise, Reborn kicked the grenades back to Lambo.

"You shouldn't run away from your duties as a boss, Zero." Reborn nonchalantly stated as the grenades exploded behind him. For some reason there was some pink smoke too, adding more drama to the effect. I stared at the hitman, explosion and pink smoke in confusion as my brains tried to understand what the hell just happened.

"Yare yare, did my younger self shoot the ten ye- Zero?" A teen asked as he stepped out of the pink smoke and froze. I recognized the cow printed outfit… and the face.

"L-lambo?" I stuttered as I finally made the connection between the Lampo-lookalike and the afro cow Lambo. _How didn't I suspect anything when the kid told me his name?!_

"Zero… ZEROOOOO!" he shouted as he ran to me and hugged me. "Where are you? You're missing for three months already!" he cried. I tilted my head in confusion. _Why would I be missing?_ I wondered as the teen continued to hug me to death.

"Lambo-kun? Could you please let me go before you crush my bones?" I asked the now ten years older kid who was indeed almost crushing my bones with his hug.

"Yare yare, that is right. Sorry Zero… I just miss you. This is our first meeting isn't it?"

"We met a while before though…"

"I was talking about my fifteen years old self."

"I saw you one time when you were getting poisoned by Bianchi-san…"

"Ah back then-"

"What were you talking about, useless cow?" Reborn interrupted Lambo with the same green gun he used to threaten me before.

"W-what are you talking about Reborn? I-I don't say a-anything about Zero being missing." Lambo stuttered as he tried to feign ignorance. _Tried_. He actually betrayed himself just now…

"Missing?" Reborn threated.

"How did you kno- I meant what are you talking about Reborn?"

"Excuse me… but where is Tsuna-san?" I interrupted their conversation. Both Reborn and the older Lambo turned their attention to where Tsuna was standing before in alarm, only to see another figure in the almost dissolved pink smoke.

"I didn't lock the door so I could hear you shouting about Zero again Lambo…" A husky, tired voice stated. I looked at the owner of the voice who was practically seen a carbon copy of Giotto as I first met him… just with a different coloring. And tired.

"Tsuna-san?" I frowned in confusion. The young man jerked his head up and locked his brown eyes with my violet ones.

"Zero?" The brunet asked softly as tears started to appear in the corner of his eyes. He walked closer and squatted in front of me so he could look at me on eye-level.

"It really_ is_ you…" He smiled after staring in my eyes for a while. "Ah! It's time to give you this I guess." He stated as he picked a small box from his pocket.

"Tsuna-san?" I asked in confusion.

"Your future self told me to give this to you if I ever saw your past self." The future Tsuna smiled sadly. "She said: you will know what to do when the time comes… Hey Zero?"

"Yes?"

"Please be careful." He said as he suddenly hugged me. I blinked in surprise as the pink smoke appeared again and the future Tsuna disappeared… and the normal Tsuna reappeared. A bit too close to my face as he was only a head taller now.

"Hieee?!" he shrieked as he stepped away from me in surprise and embarrassment. "W-what happened?"

"That is what we all want to know." Reborn stated with a dark expression. I nodded in agreement and looked at the small box in my hand. _I wonder what this box is_, I thought as I tried to open the indigo box.

"What is that?" Tsuna asked me as I gave up opening the box. It wouldn't even budge!

"Something that the future you gave me." I sighed in disappointment. Maybe I should wait for the right time to come? I wouldn't want to create a paradox after all…

"WHAT?!"

"…You really have interesting reactions Tsuna-san." I grinned as I decided to give up on opening the box for now. "Please take care of yourself Lambo, don't let the way lose you again. I will see you later Tsuna-san, Reborn-san. I have to go home now… paperwork is waiting for me." I stated as I walked away.

_I will have to trust my future self's message if I want to know what happened to the future me…_

…

Reborn watched the white haired girl leave the park in confusion. _How could she be so calm after hearing that she is missing in the future?_ he wondered while he ignored the conversation of the two males behind him.

Estraneo Zero… he read the files about her, but he never expected her to be so…

_Familiar_.

Could she have known Renata? No that is impossible…

"Reborn?"

Then how was she so much like his sister?

"Reborn, hello?"

Zero and Renata are too much alike for it to be coincidence…

"Reborn!"

"Shut up Dame-Tsuna, I heard you." He stated as he jumped on his shoulder. _I will observe her for now…_ Reborn decided as he ignored Lambo.

_Maybe she has a connection with Renata…_

…

**Omake: meanwhile, ten years in the future**

Tsuna coughed as the pink smoke around him started to dissolve and opened his teary eyes… and closed them immediately after that. _What the hell is this?_ he mentally screamed as he saw the enormous piles of… paper?

He stood up from the chair where he was currently sitting on and picked one of the many pages on the desk in curiosity, completely forgetting that he was in a unknown room. Tsuna tried to read the page in his hands but frowned as he didn't recognize the language, he didn't understand anything… except the very last line.

Vongola Decimo, Tsunayoshi Sawada

"Hieee!" Tsuna shrieked as he dropped the piece of paper. What the hell is this? he mentally panicked as he looked around in the room he was in. It was a rather big and luxurious room, Tsuna noticed before his attention was drawn to the picture on the desk. It was almost buried in the huge piles of paper, but Tsuna could see that it was cared for as there wasn't a single fold in the picture.

It was a picture of a young man with brown gravity defying hair and warm smile. There were other people on the picture too, but Tsuna could only stare at the empty space of the picture. Someone cut out a part of the picture… It was like someone didn't want to see the person who was cut away… or like they couldn't bear to see them… Tsuna turned the picture around and read the line on the back of the picture.

Visiting the cliff with …

Tsuna dropped the picture as something in the back of his head warned him for something. Just in time to see the pink smoke again… and pale purple eyes close to his face.

"Hieee?!"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**And now we know what TYL Lambo was trying to shout last chapter, Zero is missing… What could have happened in the future? And Zero's name in her past life is revealed! Renata is, like Renato, a form of Renatus which is a late Latin name for 'born again'(ignore my bad naming sense please). Does anyone want to know how Joseph/Seth ended up in the Estraneo? I was thinking about writing about that in the next chapter :). A small preview for the next chapter:**

"_Eh… Zero, do you know why Joseph is like… this?"  
"You should stay home today… a troublesome person just arrived in Japan."  
"Chris, please restrain him"  
This is going to be a long day_

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 10: old friends

_I wonder what I gave to Zero… or what the future me gave to Zero… or what I will give to Zero in the future… past? I don't get it!_ Tsuna fretted while he walked to school. It was just yesterday when he arrived in the strange room filled with huge piles of paper, which gave him a foreboding feeling, and saw the picture. The picture alone was enough keep Tsuna awake for the whole night, why would anyone discard a part of a picture anyways, but the object that the future him gave Zero gave him a rather… ominous feeling. Tsuna felt a bit weak. _Maybe because I didn't sleep_, the teen mused.

_How is Zero able to keep calm after this anyways?_ Tsuna wondered. Estraneo Zero was the definition of 'weird and yet normal' to Tsuna. She was, amongst his friends, the least violent one and the one with the most common sense… or the least, as her common sense was weird. Who creates a mafia Famiglia when they are ten anyways?

_O right: Zero… _

Tsuna sighed when he realized that he was surrounded by weirdoes. Why couldn't his life has been more normal? A life without mafia-business and crazy baby-hitman-tutors, crazy people and weird skull marks on his hand… _Wait what?_

…

**BOOOOOM**

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" I shouted as the explosion woke me up. I hurried out of my bed and ran to the most explosive place in the house: the basement where Seth mixes his explosive liquids.

"What happened?!" I shouted in horror when I reached the room where Seth was in, not only because of the explosion, but also because of the scene I saw. The usually green walls were covered in dirt and Seth was most likely unconscious next to his cauldron, covered in burn wounds.

"CHRIS! COME HERE!"

…

"Eh… Zero, do you know why Joseph is like… this?" Chris asked nervously as he treated Seth's wounds. The said man kept silent as Chris worked and was emitting killer intent for an… unknown reason. His hazel eyes behind his reading-glasses turned to our direction. The evil glint in his eyes was even visible from behind the glass.

"I haven't got a clue… maybe he's on his period…" I joked, trying to lighten up the heavy mood. But it didn't work… _damn I think I made it even worse_.

"Well… I'm off to school." I said when I sensed his anger intensify. Sorry Chris, you will have to handle this on your own. _There is no way that I will confront a man on his period!_

"Wait boss." Seth said. I froze, _I was so close to the door_. I sighed in defeat and turned around to the killing intend-emitting man. _If something happens… I will run away_, I thought as I was trying to find the fastest way out of the basement.

Seth stood up and walked to us. He squatted in front of me to properly look in my eyes and grabbed my shoulders. His hazel eyes burning in my own eyes, frightening the hell out of me with their intensity.

"Y-yes uncle Seth?" I said as I put on my puppy eyes and a hesitant flower-smile in the hope that he would spare me from… whatever he was planning.

"You should stay home today… a troublesome person just arrived in Japan." He said with an angry and yet calm tone. I wonder who the troublesome person is and why he made Seth like this, but… No matter how troublesome this guy may be, I_ need _to get away from this maddening pressure… So I ignited my mist-flames, created a wall of real illusions between us and ran away like the devil was chasing me.

"Bye!"

"Don't leave me with him!" Chris shouted in despair.

"Kufufufu, sorry uncle Chris!"

…

Class was over in a breeze, but I didn't want to go home yet. Uncle Seth is… I didn't want to think about what would happen if I went home. _What made him so angry anyways? _Uncle Seth was always the calmer one of my uncles…

_Never make a calm person angry as the calm ones are the scarier ones, _I frowned.

"Hey midget, where is Juudaime?" Gokudera asked.

"I haven't got a clue Gokudera-san, and I kind of have my own problems here." I sighed.

"What kind of problems?" Yamamoto asked with a small smile on his face which did not reach his worried eyes.

"My uncle is acting like a woman on her period. And I don't want to go home yet." I answered. Both Yamamoto and Gokudera gave me a confused look and decided to not ask me about it.

"Zero-chan?" Kyoko asked.

"Yes Kyoko-san?" I asked with a small smile when I turned around to face the smiling girl.

"Do you want to go to the new cake-shop with me? Hana-chan refused to come along." She asked. A spark of hope ignited and my smile widened at my savior.

"Yes!" I jumped at the chance to escape Seth. _Sorry Chris… you're on your own for a little bit longer…_

…

"Choo" The grey haired man sneezed. He immediately froze afterwards and carefully looked in the room where the devil himself was mixing… ominous looking green liquids in a big black cauldron. _Please come home soon Zero_, he thought as the brunet turned his murderous gaze in his direction.

_Please, before it is too late_.

…

"Hmm, Kyoko-san… why are we at Tsuna-san's house?" I asked when we arrived at the said house.

"Well… Tsuna-kun didn't join the boxing club, but my brother wanted to give him his books about boxing. We will go to the shop after this." She smiled while she peeked through the open door. I shrugged and wanted to look through the open door too, but I felt my phone vibrate.

'Buon giorno'

'_Where. Are. You.'_

'H-hello uncle Seth… well… I'm bringing my ill friend some… material?'

'_Come home as soon as possible boss, the person I mentioned is in Nanimori'_

'I-I will be back as soon as I delivered the stuff then…'

"ROARRR PROTECT KYOKO-CHAN AS IF I WERE TO DIE!" I heard Tsuna roar. I peeked in the house in curiosity.

'_What was that boss?'_

'Hmm, I guess that Tsuna-san just stripped in front of people… again. And I wonder who that man is…'

'_That man you're talking about… is he a doctor?'_

'…He looks like one'

'_Boss. Stay away from that man, he is dangerous. I'm coming. Stay there.'_

"Hello? Uncle Seth? Hello…" _He hung up_, I frowned. And what did he want me to do? Stay or get away from here?

"Sorry Kyoko-san my uncle just called me, so I can't come with you…" I apologized as soon as she walked out of the house.

"It's fine Zero-chan, next time maybe..." She said smiled. I nodded and waved as she left and waited next to the door when she was out of sight.

"Ah, Zero-chan?" I looked up.

"Hello Bianchi-san."

"What are you doing here?"

"Hmm, I'm waiting for my uncle to pick me up… he told me to stay here."

"Come in then." Bianchi offered with a small smile.

"But I have to stay away from that man." I muttered.

"Don't worry, I won't let him touch you" Bianchi smiled. I hesitantly smiled back and followed her inside. "Are you hungry, shall I make you something?"

"Kufufufu, no Bianchi-san, I didn't skip a meal this time so I'm not hungry. But thanks for the offer."

…

"Ah, who is this cutie here?" the man with the same hairstyle as Gokudera asked. I raised an eyebrow, _did he just hit on a ten years old?_

"None of your concern pervert." Bianchi snarled.

"Aww Bianchi-chuun, don't be shy." I could swear that I heard something snap. But it wasn't Bianchi… I froze when I recognized the killing intend from the hall.

"Keep your hands off Zero, pedophile." Chris threated, but it was the other man who made me freeze in fear.

"It has been a long while Trident… now stay still so I can actually kill you." Seth said eerily calm while he walked in and picked a few vials from his belt.

"Uncle Seth? Do you know this man?" I asked confused_._

"I regretfully admit that I _knew_ him boss, he was the one who got me in debt by the Estraneo… by cheating on all the female scientists and pinning it on _me_." He said in a dark and eerily calm tone.

"I-it's nice to see you again too Joseph... H-how about a reunion hug?" the man tried to calm him down. But it made him angrier instead.

"Chris, please restrain him." I ordered the man who was still standing in the hall. Chris nodded, but restrained the man instead of Seth. I sighed before I tried to keep Seth killing the doctor, but it was too late as Seth threw some of his vials with a new kind of dangerous looking dark green liquid at his head.

"Hieee Zero-san since when were you here?"

_This is going to be a long day,_ I thought as the vials broke and a huge green explosion followed.

…

"Excuse me, I need some bandages fo- never mind" I immediately turned around when I found out who was standing in the nurse office of Nanimori middle school. I just needed some bandages for someone who accidentally cut her hand during home economics, but I didn't expect Trident Shamal to be the new head nurse. The man who was _almost_ killed by uncle Seth not too long ago.

"Wait!" I froze.

"Aren't you the Estraneo Primo?" he asked. "The one that Joseph is taking care of?"

"My uncles told me to ignore _pedophiles_… and to hurt them when they get too close." I hissed when I turned around. "And it is the _Neo_ Estraneo!"

"W-wait stop! I-I just wanted to apologize to your uncle, but he never gave me a chance to… Please help me with apologizing!" he pleaded.

"Why would I? You kind of threw him in the hands of the one of the most cruel Famiglia's in the mafia history… give me a good reason why I should even _think_ of helping you."

"Because Joseph is… was my only real friend and I never meant to throw him in their hands… And it was a misunderstanding! I wasn't flirting with _all_ the female scientists, I was just trying to get information about my next patient…" he continued. I raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Patient?"

…

"Welcome back boss" the brunet said while he was reading the newspaper. "Did you know tha- And what is _that_ doing here?"

"Hmm… uncle Seth? Please hear this man out." His boss, a small girl asked as she walked in with doctor Shamal. Joseph narrowed his eyes behind his reading glasses when he saw the man walking in the living room.

"No." He stated. He would never forgive _that _and if possible he wanted to never talk to _it _again.

"Joseph… please." The other man pleaded as he ran his hand through his dark brown hair. Shamal looked at his fr- former friend as he was glared at and tried to not look away at the hate he saw. He clenched his sweaty hands into fists and tried to calm down. Tried not to fall apart at the pressure.

"There is nothing to say here. Leave this estate immediately. No leave _this continent._" Shamal looked away from the other man who pushed his glasses up. It was a sign that his former friend was running out of patience. _Maybe I should give up…_

"Uncle Seth… give him a chance." Zero stated as she stared at the green floor. Earning two surprised gazes. Both the men didn't expect the girl to defend the doctor.

"Boss…"

"Please uncle Seth. Please give him a chance to explain…"

"But."

"Please uncle Seth…" She looked up at the older men, who were staring at her, with a sad smile. They both noticed the emotion that flashed in her eyes… _Nostalgia?_ But as fast as the emotion appeared, it disappeared. Making the men wonder if they imagined the sad look.

"He was once your friend, a friend you haven't seen in years… please give him a chance. You never know when you will never be able to meet other again and you might regret that."

"…" Joseph looked at the young girl in confusion. She was clearly talking about them and yet he got the feeling that she was talking about someone else too. About herself…

"Please begin Shamal." Zero gestured to the other man before Joseph got the chance to ask the girl.

"A-around ten years ago I was offered a job by an unknown company. I was led to their base and they told me what the job was… but the only thing they told me was that my patient was a young girl who desperately needed a doctor and that the pay would be great… I should have suspected something back then, but I didn't." Shamal frowned at his own naivety.

"I foolishly accepted the job and started with information gathering. I asked everyone I could find, _even the men_, but I couldn't find any information… And at the day that I would have begun the job I was summoned by the Vongola. The Vongola Nono was in a critical situation and they desperately needed me at their base. That is why I asked you to take over the job for a few days, but when I returned to the base… it was abandoned. I couldn't even find a single clue about your whereabouts. Using some of my contacts, I later found out that they were the Estraneo Famiglia."

"And you never found out that they were the Estraneo before?" Joseph snapped at the man. He perfectly understood that the Estraneo was undetectable if they wanted to, the members were geniuses after all. Mad scientists, but still geniuses. But he didn't believe that his former friend was stupid enough to accept a shady job like that.

"No"

"Bu-"

"Uncle Seth… If you should hate anyone here, it should be me…"

"Boss?"

"The patient he was talking about… is me."

"WHA-"

"Please let me explain!" Shamal pleaded. Joseph looked at the man with hesitation showing in his eyes, in a way he wanted to believe his former friend and his current boss. In a way he wanted to believe that whatever the Estraneo told him was a lie, but after listening to possible lies all these years, he didn't know who or what to believe anymore. And yet he really wanted to believe his… friend.

"…I just need to know one thing Trident." He stated as he turned away from the doctor and the mafia boss. "Did you abandon me there?"

"Of course not! I have looked for you for almost five years! After that I was convinced that you were dead though…"

"As you can see, I'm still alive… Damn it, you have a bad influence on me, boss." Joseph sighed. "I will believe you Shamal, but don't expect me to forgive you if you ever pull a stunt like that again." He stated. Shamal stayed silent but ran over to the other man and pulled him in a hug.

"I-I missed you Joseph." He sobbed. The said man sighed but smiled. Though he will never admit it, he kind of missed his best friend too.

"I'm back!" a fourth voice shouted as the grey haired man walked in the living room with a big sack before he dropped the said bag in surprise. Christiano wasn't sure about what he expected to see when he returned to their Japanese home… but not this. Seeing a pervert and his friend hugging, with the said friend wearing a small smile on his slightly blushing face… It took Christiano a while before he accepted that the scene in front of him was real and not one of the illusions that Zero made. Joseph tried to kill the man who was hugging him a few days ago after all…

"Hey Zero?" He whispered to the small girl who walked to him.

"Yes uncle Chris?"

"Are Joseph and the pervert… hugging?" Christiano asked, just to be sure.

"I guess they are."

"Then… are they gay?"

""Like hell we are!""

"Kufufufu."

…

**Omake: after that**

"Boss?" I hesitantly began.

"Yes uncle Seth?"

"…Thank you." I looked at my small boss who started to smile one of her many warm smiles.

"You're welcome uncle Seth."

"Is there anything I could do in return?" I asked her. Zero closed her violet eyes and tilted her head.

"Hmm, you have done so many things already uncle Seth… there is nothing I can think of but one thing." She smiled after a while. I looked at my boss in confusion, _what did I do before?_

"You and uncle Chris saved me from that hell and stayed with me for all these years, there shouldn't be anything more that I want from you. But there is one thing that I selfishly want to ask you to do… Call me Zero instead of boss." I blinked a few times in surprise at the answer… _That is all she wants?_

"…Hahahahahahaha" I burst out laughing. Typically Zero, asking for something this simple over and over again. But for me, boss was a kind of nickname for her, like she likes to call me Seth. I guess that she misunderstood it as politeness or something. _But if that is the case…_

"Sure Zero" I smiled. "-sama"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**LOOK HERE ZERO I GOT THE BESTFICEVER AWARD! AND I GOT 50 FAVORITES AND 67 FOOLOWS*runs over to Zero and hugs her.  
**"A-ah congra-"  
**Thank you guys for liking iiiittttt!  
**"C-calm down doubleyy-san…"  
**B-but… ok I'm calmed down. Thanks Zero.  
**"It's alright..."  
**Ahem, anyways, hey guys… First of all: thanks for the reviews.  
**"Yes, doubleyy-san really liked them"  
**I really did! Ahem… to Theta-McBride: we will see in the future (arc) kufufufu, I got it all planned out.  
to n1ghtdr34m3r: me too! I can't wait for the Kokuyo arc! Kufufufu  
and to Alice aquabld: thank you for the award, it made my day :).  
Secondly, even I did not expect that Joseph knew Shamal…  
**"Me neither…"  
**At least it ended well between them… hey Zero, do you think that there is something more to their relationship than friendship?  
**"Hmm, possibly…, he was looking for uncle Seth for five whole years after all. But doctor Shamal _is _a woman-lover…"  
**Yes he is… And lastly: I felt like there was a lack of Reborn in this chapter…  
**"Hmm, that is right… why didn't Reborn-san appear in this chapter doubleyy-san?"  
**Well… he was busy. (with observing Zero from the shadows, so she didn't see him… but I can't really tell her right?)  
**"Hmm…"  
**A-and this chapter was supposed to focus on Joseph after all…  
**"…"  
**A-anyways, to apologize to you guys for the lack of Reborn I decided to add another omake, here you go:**

**Omake 2: The daily life of the Sinclairs (part 1?)**

Renato Sinclair was witnessing the most horrific scene he had ever seen in his nine years old life. And all because of a joke that his father made not too long ago… The elder Sinclair promised that he would be by his wife's side when the big day came or Renato would have to take his place. Now the big day came, his father was still at work so Renato indeed had to take his place. Of course he tried to run away… which resulted in his situation now.

Not able to run anymore, because he was strapped to a chair, he witnessed his mother giving birth to his sibling. The raven haired boy didn't know what was worse, open his eyes and see the hellish scene or closing his eyes and hear his mother scream in pain. Either options made him nauseous like hell. After a short time, which seemed like ages for the now traumatized boy, his younger sister was born.

"Meet your younger sister, Renato." The golden-haired mother smiled. Renato, who was still terrified and pale, looked at his mother who was holding his baby sister in her arm. The scene somehow warmed his heart, though the images of childbirth and its sound will never leave his memories ever again.

"She looks weak…" Renato stated while he stared at his now sleeping younger sister with a small smile on his pale face.

"Of course silly, she is a baby after all." His mother, Serena Sinclair, laughed.

"DID I MISS IT?!" A man with raven hair and hazel eyes shouted as he slammed the door open.

"Ah hello dear, and yes you missed it." Serena stated softly, not taking her black eyes away from her daughter. "Meet your daughter, Renata Sinclair."

""Renata?"" The father and son sweatdropped.

"Dear, did you name our child after me again?" Renatus Sinclair sighed.

"Indeed." The mother smiled as she handed over her daughter to her husband. "So she will grow up to be as adorable and reliable as her father and older brother." The father and son wanted to facepalm, but both were unfortunately unable to. One because of the sleeping baby in his arms and the other because he was still strapped to his chair.

"Mother… if you call another future sibling Renati, Renate or Renatu, I will hit you." The raven haired boy sighed in disappointment. "And can anyone set me free right now?!"

**If enough people like this I might continue 'The daily life of the Sinclairs', it was fun to write kufufufu (so tell me if you liked it). For those who don't know what Buon giorno means: it means good morning or something like that (I'm not that sure). Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 11: memories

"The summer vacation ended abruptly and now I kinda feel sad" Tsuna said. I nodded in agreement while I enjoyed the sight of the auburn leaves falling from the trees and smiled. _Fall isn't bad either..._

…

_Flashback_

"The leaves are pretty aren't they?" I smiled while the auburn leaves fell to the ground.

"Hn" The platinum-blonde agreed. I sweatdropped.

"Come on Alaude, don't be so stiff around me. Aren't we… friends? No?" I sighed in defeat when Alaude didn't answer.

"Nufufufu, the leaves are quite beautiful indeed but-"

"Not as beautiful as Elena? Come on Daemon, we already know that you love her…" I interrupted. I wouldn't even be surprised if whole Italy knew it…

"Nufufufu, let's return to the others. They're waiting for us to eat." The blue haired man laughed while he waved back to the waving Elena in the distance.

"Hn" Alaude agreed.

"Well… did I cook some food to share with the others, are you guys coming along? … Alaude… What are you going to do with those handcuffs… Kufufufu." I laughed nervously when I realized what he was going to do. "See you later Alaude!" and I dashed away while trying to evade several handcuffs, jabs, strikes and kicks. "Damn it Alaude! Why are you always angry when I cook food? There is nothing wrong with the taste!"

"Nufufufu. It seems that you're about to get beaten to death."

"Damn you too Daemon!"

"Nufufufu, I'd rather enjoy the show." The pineapple haired man laughed before he was almost hit by a handcuff that Alaude threw at his head.

"Stop crowding." Alaude smirked as Daemon was starting to get pissed off.

"You little…"

"Kufufufu you deserved that!"

…

_Why did I just get this flashback?_ I wondered when I returned to reality. And why is it so… quiet? I looked around me when I didn't hear the usual noise that accompanied Gokudera and saw a deserted roof with only Reborn and… a green mallet in his hands?

"The others are going to secure a hideout for the Vongola, Zero, you were daydreaming when they left for the reception room. I _waited_ for you to wake up" Reborn said as the green mallet transformed to Leon. _I'm glad that I woke up in time,_ I sweatdropped. Being hit by a mallet is not the best way of starting a day and I had firsthand experience in my former life with mom and Renato… _Wait a minute_…

"Kufufufu, is this part of their training?" I asked when I realized it. Both Renato and Reborn wouldn't do anything without a reason, so there _must_ be something in the reception room. Reborn grinned in response.

"They're going to fight Hibari Kyoya." _Hibari Kyoya?_ Why does that name sound familiar? I tilted my head as I tried to remember where I heard the name before but gave up rather quickly. If it was important, I would have remembered it.

"I don't know who this Hibari is… but let me enjoy the show, kufufufu." I chuckled. Tsuna's reactions never failed to amuse me after all. I closed my uneaten bento-box and started on my way to the reception room with Reborn.

…

Reborn saw the expression of Zero change when she looked at the falling leaves. Her smile became nostalgic and her eyes became slightly unfocused. Reborn recognized this face as the face that Renata used to make whenever she was daydreaming. He frowned when he realized that the expressions were too similar, even though the appearance of the persons who made the expression weren't similar at all.

While Zero had curly white hair, his sister had straight black hair. And while Renata's eyes were black, Zero's eyes were a lighter color: a pale purple though they were both strangely warm. But even though their appearance were different, their behavior and habits were _exactly_ the same. A perfect match. Reborn took the liberty to observe the girl for a few days after all.

Now he confirmed that Estraneo Zero _must_ have a connection with his late sister. They were too much alike for it to be coincidence, their habits and behavior were one thing but _hell_ even their laugh was the same…

_I wonder if those were the only similarities, or if there is more…_

And so Reborn decided to do a small test while Zero was still in her own world. He transformed Leon into a mallet and swung it to her head in record time, but the girl did the impossible for normal people. _She evaded the mallet_. Reborn frowned as the violet eyes returned to their normal look and Zero blinked in confusion.

_So even their survival instincts are the same…_

…

"The reception room is just ahead, Zero. I will see you there." Reborn said when we almost reached the destination.

"Sure" I nodded and walked in the direction that he pointed out before. I immediately froze when I opened the door though. _Did I just sign my own doom? _Tsuna who for some reason stripped again was fighting the Alaude-lookalike… wait_ he_ is Hibari Kyoya? I almost dropped my bento in shock and surprise but managed to clench the purple box in my hands.

_If the Alaude-lookalike is Hibari Kyoya, and Tsuna is supposed to fight him… _I looked in the room and saw that Gokudera and Yamamoto were both knocked out and unconscious on the floor. _And if it was my brother's son who planned this all…_ I looked at the baby who was smirking by the windows. _Then I will have to fight him too… or worse!_ My hands tightened on the bento at the realization.

Sorry Tsuna… I'm not taking this risk, anyone who is even a bit like Alaude is someone I will never fight if possible. I turned away to get away, but then I heard Reborn's squeaky voice.

"Let's break up." That and the explosion afterwards made me turn around in curiosity… _but_ _curiosity killed the cat didn't it?_

The only person in the area left was Hibari Kyoya… and me I guess.

"H-hey?" _Smooth Zero…_ I closed my eyes in terror when he came closer. But I wasn't hit, I felt something taken from my hands instead. I opened one eye in confusion. _Did he just…_

I looked in my empty hands, to my bento in his hands and to my empty hands again… _No way…_ a weird sound escaped my throat as I slowly retreated.

_I knew that I had the flashback for a reason!_

…

Hibari watched the handicapped herbivore run away like the devil was chasing her. _What a weird herbivore_, he thought. She was definitely weak and above anything _handicapped_, being unable to fight is like a handicap for Hibari... And yet she had great instincts and dodging skills. _She was definitely trained by carnivores_, Hibari mused. She was able to evade his strikes after all, not a feat that normal herbivores could do. But she isn't a carnivore, not a omnivore either nor a _normal_ herbivore, Hibari had seen some _odd_ pages between the documents that she brought to school a while ago if his eyes didn't deceive him. No, this handicapped herbivore was more than she acts like. Handicapped but no normal herbivore…

Nevertheless she kind of reminded him of a rabbit, terribly weak but with great instincts.

_A handicapped white rabbit… _

…

"Why do I have to be the class leader?" Tsuna complained during the lunch break of the sports festival.

"It's because you are the most fit of leading a group Dame-Tsuna." Reborn stated.

"Why?"

"Because you are a future mafia boss."

"I'm _not_ going to become a mafia boss! …And shouldn't Zero be a better leader than me? I mean she _is_ a mafia boss." Tsuna wondered while he looked for the said girl.

"Zero isn't participating Dame-Tsuna, she is unable of joining events like these. You should look after your allies better." Reborn scolded while kicking the brunet.

"What do you mean with allies?! And why is she unable of joining the sports festival?"

"...That is something you should ask Zero, Dame-Tsuna, not me." Reborn smirked, unbeknownst to Tsuna he was grateful of his student. Dame-Tsuna gave him an opportunity to observe Zero more closely after all…

…

"I hate paperwork…" I groaned when Chris came in with another pile of paperwork.

"It can't be helped Zero, you are the boss of an inventors mafia Famiglia after all. You need to sign more than non-inventors Famiglia's because of the inventions." Chris smiled apologetically.

"Hmm, that is true…" I agreed.

"Though the paperwork would be less if Verde didn't destroy a part of our base whenever he 'visits'…" Chris deadpanned.

"Kufufufu, at least he repairs everything immediately afterwards. If he didn't then I would have a lot more paperwork…"

"If he didn't visit there half of the paperwork will be gone."

"…That actually isn't right. He helped us with founding the neo Estraneo after all, without Verde it would have been more difficult to start. And that means more paperwork for me…" I sighed when I saw Chris getting a dark expression on his face. He was always like this whenever I defended the green haired baby, his expression darkens and his mood becomes pretty explosive.

"But still-" Chris began but the doorbell interrupted him.

**Ding dong**

"I will go." I sighed. If Chris would open the door now, he would most likely scare, ahem explode, the visitor away. "Please go and… buy some groceries or something."

"…Is fish alright?"

"Sure." I smiled.

…

_Why am I here again? _Tsuna wondered while he stared at the green house in front of him. Right after the sports festival, which ended up in a brawl, he was dragged along by Reborn and now he was standing in front of the house of Estraneo Zero…

_Maybe I can just walk away_, Tsuna mused. _There is no real reason for me to be here after a-_

"Ring the doorbell already, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn ordered as he kicked the brunet who, because of that, fell against the doorbell.

**Ding dong**

"Hieee! Why did you do that Reborn?!" Tsuna shouted in despair, now there was no way back!

"Focus Dame-Tsuna." Reborn smirked. "It is the duty of a good mafia boss to take care of their subordinates and allies, so you should take care of Zero too."

"What do you mean with tha-"

"Hello?" Zero said greeted when she opened the door. "Hmm, Tsuna-san, Reborn-san? What are you guys doing here? And how did you guys know where I live?"

"Well I was-"

"He asked me." Reborn interrupted Tsuna who wanted to protest but stayed quiet because of the smile on Reborn's face. _He is definitely planning something!_ Tsuna panicked inwardly.

"Kufufufu, the number one hitman helped Tsuna-san then? I should have known it, come in." Zero chuckled before she stepped aside to let the two males in her house. The albino girl led them to the living room and gestured them to sit on one of the couches.

"You guys aren't here to simply visit me right?" She smiled when she sat down on a couch too.

"Indeed." Reborn smirked. "Dame-Tsuna wants to ask you something."

"Hmm, Tsuna-san?" Zero asked while tilting her head a bit in curiosity. "What do you want to ask?"

"Ah… well… eh."

"Focus Dame-Tsuna." Reborn scolded him. Tsuna looked at his tort-tutor who was observing the girl with a calculating look and sighed in defeat. Now there was definitely no way back…

"…W-why are you unable to attend events like the sports festival?" he asked. Zero blinked a few times in surprise before she started to laugh.

"Kufufufu, that is all you want to know Tsuna-san? You shouldn't be too tense about questions like this one, people might misunderstand. And for the answer… Hmm, you know a part of the answer already Tsuna-san." Zero stated. Tsuna looked at the girl who was smiling sadly and tried to remember when she told him the answer before.

"…" Tsuna frowned. He couldn't remember.

"Since I was 'born' I was experimented on." Zero began. "So for the first five years of my life I never saw the sun…" Zero dropped her smile as she continued her explanation. "And because of that I have dangerously weak bones, falling from the stairs could kill me. Though the situation improved a bit the last years, they are still too weak for me to join certain events."

_So… that is why?_ Tsuna wondered while he stared at the girl who suddenly looked older than she was… _Wait a minute, older?_

"How long have you been experimented on again?" Tsuna asked weakly. It couldn't be that she was experimented on for almost half her life right?

"Hmm? five years." _no way… but then…._

"T-then how old were you when you founded your Famiglia?"

"Five?"

"…HIEEE FIVE?!" Tsuna shrieked when his brains finally progressed the piece of information. How can a normal person create a mafia Famiglia when they are five?!

"Kufufufu, you only just realized that Tsuna?" Zero burst out laughing.

"Wha-" Tsuna blushed. But then he realized that Zero left the suffix and blushed even more.

…

Reborn watched his student blush even redder than before and frowned in frustration. _Why did it feel so… wrong, _he wondered. He returned his attention to Zero who was laughing again and decided that it was enough for today.

"We are leaving Dame-Tsuna." He stated as he kicked his no good student. "See you later Zero."

"Hmm, see you later Reborn-san, Tsuna." She smiled as she stood up.

"A-ah see you later Z-Zero." Tsuna smiled too. Suddenly Reborn felt really uncomfortable and looked at the brunet. _Why did it feel so uncomfortable?_ he wondered. Somehow the smile on Tsuna's face annoyed him… so decided to double his tortu-tutoring.

_Wasn't Moretti coming to Japan?_

…

**Omake: way too early in the morning**

'Buon…gior…no?'

'_Ciaossu Zero.'_

'Why… are you calling this early in the morning Reborn-san?'

'_Moretti is in Nanimori'_

'…Who is Moretti?'

'_The expert in being assassinated. Do you want to help me to tor-tutor Tsuna?'_

'…Sorry Reborn-san it's too early for that.'

And I shut my phone without a care in the world, closed my eyes and hugged a pillow. Trying to fall asleep again… _wait how did Reborn get my cellphone number?_

_And did I just refuse the request of the best hitman in the world?_

…

_Damn it… he is definitely going to use this against me someday._

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Somehow this chapter was really difficult to write, it just didn't work out for me… Maybe it did for you guys though. Anyways let's move on!  
Thank you for pointing out the mistake mysterious guest, I fixed it :).  
I'm not too sure when the Kokuyo arc will start, AnimeKpop7, but I was planning to start it somewhere between chapter 20 and 25 :D.  
And you are the first one to comment on her appearance, Seere Klein! Congratulations! And kufufufu, it **_**is**_** an interesting concept but we will see in the future (arc)… sadly enough I'm not too great with fluff or romance, but we will see how that turns out :).  
Ahem, one more thing… I won't be able to update for a little while again… Iamreallysorryaboutit! Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 12: hanging out

"Finally free!" I shouted relieved after I signed my last document. I stretched my arms and hopped off my chair.

"Zero-sama, are you done?" Seth asked when he walked in my basement-workplace.

"Yes I am." I grinned as I put the now signed document on the pile of finished paperwork. "What is the time now?"

"It's already dinner time, but you don't have to cook today Zero-sama. We decided to eat out." Seth smiled as he straightened his purple tie with green stripes.

_Today he's wearing the tie I gave him last Christmas, _I mused when I saw the tie. Both Chris and I thought that it was funny to give him weird patterned ties every Christmas because he always wore them. We even competed about who could give the ugliest tie… and Seth always seemed to like the ties, weirdly enough.

"What are we going to get?" I asked.

"Sushi." Chris stated before Seth could answer. He walked in my workplace too and retrieved the pile of finished paperwork to send them to our base in Italy. "I heard of a good place somewhere in Nanimori."

…

"Takesushi?" I read the sign out loud. "Is this the place that you were talking about uncle Chris?"

"I met the owner a few days ago. He gave me some advice on the fish." He nodded and I sweatdropped. It didn't really matter what kind of ingredients I got, my food always ended up becoming unrecognizable… tough dinner a few days ago tasted better than usual.

I glanced at my uncles and shook my head in disappointment. they weren't able to cook _anything_ edible at all… I banned Chris and Seth from the kitchen when I discovered that little fact a few years ago. Sadly enough there were already _a few_ victims to their food. It wasn't as deadly as Bianchi's poison cooking, _but at least that tastes good_…

"Let's go in then, Zero-sama" Seth interrupted my thoughts as he walked in the restaurant. When I walked in as well, I saw that Tsuna, Yamamoto and an unknown man were laying on the ground with napkins covering their eyes. I stared at them in confusion until I noticed Bianchi _in the kitchen_.

"Ciaossu Zero, I'm sorry but the restaurant is closed for now." A squeaky voice said. I sighed when I saw the owner of the voice next to Bianchi.

"Hello Reborn-san, Bianchi-san. If you guys are here, then I can guess what happened… uncle Seth, could you please save these people before they die of poisoning?" Seth nodded and picked some vials from his belt. In situations like this one I'm glad that he was friends with Shamal. Seth carried some medical stuff in his vials because it was a habit for him to clean up the mess that Shamal left behind, so he had to carry all kinds of antidotes with him. And he continued doing that even when he was in the Estraneo… it was a miracle that the mad scientists let him carry those suspicious liquids around…

"Are you Zero's right hand man?" Reborn asked Chris while Seth was curing the unconscious people.

"Right hand man?" Chris wondered out loud while glancing at me with… a hopeful expression? _Why is he giving me this look?_ After staring at the man for a little longer I started to get uncomfortable because I have no answer to his hopeful stare. _Do I even have a right hand man to begin with?_

So I simply smiled.

And I got the smile back in tenfold.

"Yes I am." Chris smiled brightly. I rubbed my eyes as I could swear that I saw Chris wagging his tail… even though he doesn't have one. _Maybe the paperwork is affecting my sanity? _

"I'm done Zero-sama, they will be fine in a few minutes." Seth said after he put the now empty vials back on his belt. "Honestly, what poisoned them like this? They almost died because of it…"

"That would probably be Bianchi-san's poison cooking." I deducted. "Did it get stronger again Bianchi-san?"

"Would you like to try it Zero-chan?" she smirked.

"Of course." I smirked back. I saw my uncles facepalm at our conversation and I could practically hear them think: _What kind of mafia boss agrees to eat poison from a hitman when obviously asked to?_

…

When Tsuna woke up he noticed that he had a napkin covering his eyes. He wondered why he was laying on the ground as removed the napkin and tried to sit straight.

"What happened?" he muttered before he looked around. He noticed two strangely familiar looking men who were glancing warily at the kitchens.

One of the men wore a black suit with a green tie and had greyish hair and green eyes. He noticed that the man looked strangely like someone he knew, _but who?_ Tsuna ignored the strange feeling of familiarity to observe the other man.

The first thing he noticed was the purple tie with neon green stripes, the colors clashed horribly and kind of hurt his eyes. The teen blinked a few times before he observed the man again. The man had was, strangely enough, wearing a lab coat in a restaurant. He was wearing a weird belt with vials attached to it too, Tsuna noticed that some of the vials were empty while the others contained shady liquids. The man ran his left hand through his brown hair in frustration and his hazel eyes were a bit narrowed in suspicion, making the man look frightening even though he was clearly weaker than the other man.

Then Tsuna remembered where he saw these men before… _in his own house_. A little while ago, right after he was cured from skullitis by doctor Shamal. When he rushed downstairs to see what the noise was, he saw a weird scene where the man in the suit was holding doctor Shamal back while the other man, though he was covered with bandages back then, picked some of the vials. He remembered that the man threw some vials which exploded when the glass hit doctor Shamal. After that everything was blank… or rather green.

Tsuna shivered when he remembered the obvious assassination attempt at the perverted doctor. To distract himself he looked to the direction that the two man were glancing at, and paled at the sight he met. His ten years old classmate was sitting in the kitchen, her white hair in her trademark pigtails. She was wearing a purple dress and she was smiling a Kyoko-flower-smile… while she was eating poison cooking. _While she was eating poison cooking…_

"Hieee, since when are you here Zero?!" Tsuna shouted. "I-I mean, stop eating that, Zero! You will die if you eat that!"

…

"Hey Zero-chan!"

"Hmm? Hello Yamamoto-san, I see that you completely recovered now." I greeted the smiling teen. "How is your father doing?"

"My old man? He is doing fine thanks to your uncle."

"Kufufufu, that is great."

"So… do you have anything to do today Zero-chan? My father wants to thank you."

"Hmm, but I didn't do anything you know? My uncle cured you guys."

"Maa maa, but you were there too right? Anyways do you want to hang out?"

"ZEROOOO!"

"Hmm?"

…

"E-endure" Lambo muttered as he felt tears welling up in his eyes. Ignoring the urge to pull out his bazooka he looked down at the ground. _And the way lost me again, even though Zero-nee warned me to not let the way lose me again…_

Lambo was almost crying when he heard a familiar voice. He looked up and saw Zero talking to the always smiling guy who hangs around with Tsuna and Ahodera. Yama… something like that, but Lambo didn't care about his name because he found Zero now. She saved him last time and she will surely save him again.

"ZEROOOO!" he shouted as he ran over to the albino girl. the said girl turned her attention to the smaller boy and smiled warmly when she spotted him.

"Hmm? Hello Lambo-kun." She greeted when he hugged her.

"Ah it's the cow-kid." Yama-something smiled with a hint of curiosity in his eyes. "Are you lost?"

"Lambo-sama isn't lost! The way just lost me again!" Lambo protested.

"Kufufufu, so the way lost you again? How careless." Zero chuckled as she crouched down and gave Lambo some candy that she found in her pocket. The kid happily took the candy and his tears disappeared when he recognized the grape-flavored candy. It was the candy that he always got from the nice lady in the future and he calmed down. Lambo wondered why he hadn't seen the nice lady in his last trips though…

"Maa maa, you sure handle kids well, Zero-chan." Yama-something smiled.

"Kufufufu, I just got a lot of experience with children." Zero laughed sheepishly. "Do you know how to get back to Tsuna's home?" She asked Lambo. Lambo looked up at the smiling girl and shook his head.

"Lambo-sama doesn't know how to get back." He stated. "Can I stay with you for a little longer?"

"…Well, I was going to hang out with Yamamoto-san here… if Yamamoto-san agrees on letting you come along you can though." Zero offered. Lambo looked up at the tall teen.

"Can I?"

"Maa maa, sure! More people means more fun after all!" Yamamoto smiled. "So let's play baseball!"

"Hmm, baseball?"

"You never played it before Zero-chan?"

"Not really… isn't it dangerous?"

"It's totally safe." The black haired teen smiled. "I will teach you both how to play!"

…

Lambo admitted that he was a bit curious about the sport that Yamamoto talked about with much enthusiasm, so when he offered to teach Zero and him how to play baseball he was excited. He was still excited when Yamamoto and Zero got in position to play. Yamamoto as the 'pitcher' and Zero as the 'batter'. He was even more excited when they began. He was terrified when he saw Yamamoto's expression suddenly change when he had the baseball in his hand. And he was traumatized when he saw, no when he didn't see the ball rush past Zero's head. Rather, where her head was a few seconds ago. Zero felt the wind rush past the spot where her head was a few seconds ago and stared at the ball that made a dent in the fence in horror and disbelieve.

"Maa maa, you got some good reflexes Zero-chan." Yamamoto laughed like he didn't notice that he almost killed Zero a few seconds ago.

That day, Lambo Bovino and Zero Estraneo vowed to never play baseball with Takeshi Yamamoto in their entire life… unless they wanted to die.

…

"Why did it end up like this?" Tsuna wondered out loud as Lambo started to cry. They only wanted to see who was fit to become his babysitter, but as soon as Yamamoto had a baseball in his hand Lambo started crying even louder than before…

"Not baseball, not baseball." He heard Lambo cry.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" A black haired girl asked.

"Haru?! What are you doing at our school?" Tsuna asked the girl.

…

"What… happened here?" I muttered when I saw the scene in front of me. The older version of Lambo was crouching and sobbing while Tsuna was comforting him. Gokudera was shouting at a laughing Yamamoto and an unknown girl was acting all flustered. I spotted Reborn somewhere in the sidelines, he smirked when he saw me.

"ZEROOOOOOO!" Lambo shouted when he spotted me as well. "Why aren't you back yet?!" he cried as he ran closer.

"Hmm?" I hummed as I gracefully evaded the hug. "So I'm still missing?" I whispered. _What is the future me planning?_

"How mean younger-Zero" Lambo cried. "And that after not seeing each other for a long while!"

"Lambo-kun, I saw you yesterday…"

"BUT I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU SINC-"

"I got it, I got it!" I interrupted him before he starts shouting about me being missing again. "It's nice to see you again older-Lambo-kun."

"…ZEROOOOO!" He shouted again as he tried to hug me again, but before he had the chance to I was hugged by someone else.

"HAHI! You're sooooo cuteeee!" The unfamiliar girl squealed. while hugging me. I could only blink in confusion as she hugged me to death…

_What is happening here?_

…

"It seems that Zero would be the best babysitter." Reborn stated while staring at the confused girl who was being hugged to death. He called Zero over as well as he wanted to know if Zero was as good with children as Renata. And she was.

"Then… she is going to be the right hand man?" Gokudera muttered in defeat while Yamamoto was laughing as always.

"That would be impossible, she is a mafia boss herself." Reborn said. _But if she wasn't then she would be a great addition to Tsuna's Famiglia_, he mused. Zero is an illusionist and mist flame user and if she was already this much like Renata, it wouldn't surprise Reborn if she was a skilled one.

Reborn frowned when he realized that this was another similarity between Zero and Renata.

_Just what is your connection with Renata, Zero?_

…

**Omake: what happened there**

She had curly pure white hair, not tainted white like the dynamite-guy but pure white. Her curly hair was tied in low pigtails and her bangs covered her forehead, hovering a few millimeters above her eyes. Her big, violet, adorable eyes. She had pink lips, a small nose and the flawless skin that most of the children had. Putting all this together with an adorable and huggable size she was one thing: absolutely adorable.

Before Miura Haru knew it, she was already running to the girl and hugged her to death.

"HAHI! You're sooooo cuteeee!" she squealed.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Now I got my computer back I can update again! I was always wondering how Tsuna and co recovered from Bianchi's three hour killing, so I added Seth… and then this chapter happened. And it will take a little longer before Reborn finds out that Zero is Renata, it wouldn't be fun if he finds out this early right? As an apology for not updating for a while I decided to put another omake here.**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclairs part 2**

"Come on Renata, say mommy."

"Don't listen to your mother and say daddy."

"You both are idiots, how would she be able to talk?" Renato interrupted his parents. He couldn't believe that his parents were trying to let his parents tried to let his three months old sister say words as he was sure that babies were only able to cry and whine at this age.

"As parents it's our pride to hear our child saying either mommy or daddy as their first word." His father deadpanned.

"Even though you destroyed our dream by saying 'Leon' as your first word…" his mother sighed. "Seriously, your first word was the name of your teddy bear."

"Wha-"

"Kufufufu." Renata interrupted her brother. He and their parents returned their attention to the youngest Sinclair and melted at the sight of the laughing baby. Her laugh was quite… unique, but it made the baby even more adorable. The said baby opened her onyx eyes which had a glint of mischievousness in them and smiled.

"Reborn!" she said, making her family freeze.

"Did she just say… Reborn?" Serena wondered.

"Reborn!" Renata said again as she pointed at her brother.

"Daddy!" she said as she pointed at her father.

"Mommy!" she said as she pointed at her mother. Making her parents and brother stare at her in surprise. She raised both her hands and started laughing again.

"… Well I guess that I am Reborn?" Renato smirked at his parents, earning a glare from them and an amused look from his sister.

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 13: gifts

'_Why are you calling so late in the night Zero?'_

'Actually it isn't _that_ late here in Japan, I know that you are awake anyways… And I called because I need some advice.'

'_What kind of advice?'_

'…What do kids around your age want for your birthday?'

_'...'_

'I'm serious here Verde!'

_'I would like-'_

'And not the scientific stuff that you want, but stuff for 'normal' children.'

'…_I can think of something.'_

'What do yo-'

"-u mean… Hello? Verde?" _Damn he hung up_, I sighed as I put the phone away. I mentally scrapped Verde from the list of people-who-might-know-what-to-give-Reborn-as-a-birthday-present which was already short without Verde. I sighed for the umpteenth time as I started to walk around aimlessly in the living room.

"What's wrong Zero-sama?" Seth asked as he came in after a while. Chris was right behind him and had the same concerned expression on his face as Seth had.

"Guys, I need your help." I started seriously. "Reborn-san's birthday is tomorrow. And I don't know what to give him…" _Brother's birthday is tomorrow too… _I mentally added. _It must be a coincidence that they have the same birthday…_ Having a kid as a birthday present is a bit too much though.

"He hates Verde right?" Chris asked. I nodded, Reborn's reaction on Verde's name made it very clear that he _disliked_ the baby. Very, very much. "Then I've got the perfect present for him…" Chris grinned as he walked away. When he left the living room I could hear his evil chuckles and decided that it could have been a bad idea to ask him…

"Zero-sama, why do I get the feeling that I should never get on his bad side?" Seth asked me.

"Uncle Seth, that feeling is probably right, remind me to never get on his bad side…"

…

"Come in, Zero-chan" Tsuna's mother smiled.

"It's nice to finally meet you Sawada-san." I flower-smiled as I walked in Tsuna's house.

"It's nice to meet you too Zero-chan. Tsu-kun and Reborn-kun told me a lot about you. My name is Sawada Nana, but please call me mama." She smiled back.

"…Sure mama." I answered hesitantly, it was weird to call someone mama while they aren't my actual mother in this life… _but I don't really have a mother this life so I guess that it is alright_, I shrugged mentally. And there is no way that I will _ever_ call the mad scientists mama...

"It's nice to see you again Haru-san" I smiled warily when I saw the brunette who hugged me to death a while ago without a reason. Luckily enough I managed to get away last time, but this girl had a death grip!

"It's nice to see you too, Zero-chan" She smiled back.

"Hello Bianchi-san, Yamamoto-san, Gokudera-san. How did you guys get here before me? …and why is Gokudera-san struggling to stay alive?" I asked when I saw the said teen whimpering on the floor. He kind of looked like Seth after a roller coaster ride… maybe a bit worse than that.

"Maa maa, we simply ran here immediately after school."

"And my little brother always acts this way whenever I see him." Bianchi said. Wait, did she just say… _little brother?_

"…You're related to Gokudera-san?" I asked hesitantly. She nodded, _well… now she confirmed it, I can see the resemblance_. They had the same colored eyes and the same nose. I wonder how I didn't notice before… o I remember! _Because I was too busy thinking about his resemblance with G…_

"They're coming." Nana whispered and urged us in our positions to surprise Reborn.

""Happy Birthday!"" we shouted when the door was opened by Tsuna. _I wonder where they kept the party poppers… and why Tsuna is looking so blank._

"Oh no! Tsu-kun's birthday is tomorrow! I completely forgot!" Nana exclaimed. Really? You forgot?! But you are his mother! And why didn't anyone tell me? But then I saw her smirk while the others were fussing about Tsuna's birthday. _She planned this?_ I looked at the similar smirk on Reborn's face and smirked myself.

_They definitely planned it to end up like this…_

…

"So you planned this all?" I asked while everyone else was panicking about Bianchi's cutting pizza.

"You noticed?" Reborn smirked. _So he did,_ I grinned.

"Creating bonds between Famiglia-members?"

"Indeed."

"Kufufufu, how sly. Happy birthday Reborn-san…" I laughed as I gave him the envelope. "Don't ask me how I got it, Chris is collecting these…" Reborn's smirk widened a bit when he saw the contents.

_Blackmail material of a certain green haired baby._

"He collects _these_?"

"He hates him with a passion, though I don't know why."

"…Thanks Zero. 97 points."

"Have fun with them… though I would appreciate it if you wouldn't tell anyone that you got these from me…"

"Sure, Zero." He said nonchalantly as he turned his attention to the next performance like he wasn't planning anything. But his smirk told me that he would use his present properly… I suddenly pitied the poor Verde.

…

Somewhere in Italy Verde sneezed and wondered why he suddenly felt so…_ threatened._ But he dismissed the ominous feeling and continued testing his latest invention. He wondered why Zero would want something for children around his age… though she probably meant children around his physical age instead of his actual age. But he gladly took the chance to invade the Neo Estraneo base and 'ask' the help of the scientists and inventor for the project.

They were great assistants and seeing them panic because of his sudden appearance was interesting after all…

"Done." He smirked after completing the last test on the device. "Now I just have to deliver it to Japan… maybe that fighting maniac is still in Italy."

…

"_Here is your next target I-Pin, please take care of yourself."_ A small figure said in Chinese.

"_Yes master." _The Chinese assassin answered.

"_Ah, before you go I-Pin, can you deliver this to someone in Nanimori? It's rare that Verde wants me to deliver something."_

"_Verde?"_

"_He is an acquaintance of mine."_

"_Sure master."_

"_Thank you I-Pin, you have to deliver it to… Zero Estraneo. According to Verde, Zero has white hair, so she could be easily recognized."_

…

"Kufufufufufu."

"It's not funny Zero!" Tsuna complained at lunchtime.

"But you were chased around by one dog that you managed to piss off, which has been scared away by a kid. And when that dog was gone you were chased by even more dogs, right? How is that _not_ funny?" I laughed. Tsuna gave me a look before he sighed and glared at his bento.

"Stupid Reborn and his training." I heard him mutter and I laughed again.

"Kufufufu, be careful with what you say Tsuna, you never know who is listening along." I laughed louder when Tsuna snapped his head up and looked for Reborn in horror. "Kufufufu, don't worry Tsuna, Reborn-san and the others haven't arrived yet."

Tsuna sighed in relieve and opened his bento when he realized that Reborn didn't hear him.

…

I was walking back to home when ran into the kid that Tsuna could have mentioned. Or rather, she ran into me. The girl was wearing Chinese clothes and stared at my head before she started shouting in Chinese.

"_Ah! White hair! Could it be that you are the one I should have delivered the package to?!"_ she asked.

"_Are you on an errand little girl?"_

"…_You can speak Chinese?"_

"_Hmm, yes I can. My name is Zero."_

"_My name is I-pin… then you were the one that Verde meant?"_

"…_I think so?"_ I mused, there wasn't any other person in Nanimori, apart from Chris Seth and me, that knows Verde right?

"…_But I delivered that already!" _she shouted in panic. "_What now?!"_

"_Hmm, I could help you with finding the package… who did you deliver it to?"_

"_A white haired person."_ She stated. I closed my eyes and sighed, there were three people in that I know with white hair in Nanimori… if she meant younger people. Otherwise I would have to visit every old person in Nanimori… and hope that the package from Verde didn't contain anything explosive.

"_Then let's go to school and hope that they are still there." _I sighed.

…

"_How did you deliver it to the wrong person anyways?"_ I asked I-pin when we almost reached our destination.

"_I'm extremely near sighted and the only description I got was white hair."_ She stated a bit sheepishly.

"_Hmm, then why aren't you wearing glasses?"_

"_Because I don't have ears…"_

"_Contact lenses?"_

"_What?"_

"_Contact lenses, you know? The small, thin lens which corrects the eyesight like glasses do, but without the frame?"_

"…_I never thought of that…"_ the girl admitted sheepishly.

"_Kufufufu, well we are here." _I chuckled nervously as I stopped in front of the gym in school. I was sure that we could find Ryohei in here… So I pushed the doors open and quickly covered I-pin's ears. Or the spot where her ears were supposed to be.

"EXTREME punch!" I heard Ryohei shout when he punched an, unwilling, opponent.

"H-hello Ryohei nii-san" I smiled, I'm glad that my injuries could heal quickly or I would have permanent hearing problems because of him. It is a miracle that his club still had some members who aren't deaf yet…

"Ah hello Zero." He greeted. "What are you doing here to the EXTREME?"

"…Did you get any package?"

"No, are you here to EXTREMELY join the boxing club?"

"…No?" I answered hesitantly. _How did he come to that conclusion anyways?_

"_What is happening?" _I-pin asked me. I realized that I was still covering her ears and I let her head go.

"_Sorry for that, I-pin-chan. And, well… he just asked if I was here to join his club."_

"_Club?"_

"_The boxing club. It's a fighting club." _I smiled. I-pin looked at Ryohei in curiosity.

"_Fighting?"_

"Do you want to EXTREMELY join too?" Ryohei asked the Chinese kid who winched from the volume that the white haired teen used. "You look like an EXT-"

"Sorry Ryohei nii-san, but we have to go now!" I interrupted him as I quickly lifted I-pin and ran out the gym before I-pin would get permanent hearing issues… and before we were forced to join the boxing club.

…

"_Where are we Zero?" _I-pin asked while looking at the busy street.

"_We are at the market, my uncle should be here." _I answered as I looked for Chris, but I spotted another familiar white haired person in the crowd instead.

"Gokudera-san!" I shouted before I would lose him in the crowd.

"What do you want- oh it's you, midget." He stated. "What do you want?"

"Did you get a package?" I asked him when I-pin and I got closer to the white haired teen.

"No… Why do you ask?" he asked confused.

"Kufufufu, because the package was delivered wrongly to a person with white hair." I laughed. Gokudera closed his eyes and starting thinking, I could practically see the gears in his head turning.

"If you are looking for white haired people, you should ask the older people in Nani- Wait a minute! MY HAIR ISN'T WHITE, IT'S SILVER!" he shouted, but I was already running away with I-pin in my arms.

"_What is happening Zero?"_ I-pin asked me confused.

"_Kufufufu, Gokudera-san just exploded." _

"_H-he did?"_

"_Kufufufu, not literally of course."_ I laughed. I laughed more when I hear I-pin's stomach growl and looked at the sky. When I saw the sun setting I realized that I've been running for a longer time then I thought.

"_It's getting pretty late already I-pin-chan, do you have a place to stay?"_

"…_No." _she admitted sheepishly.

"_Then you can stay at my home for tonight."_

…

"Welcome back Zero, you have a package." Chris greeted me when I walked in the living room with I-pin.

"…_Ah this is the guy!"_ she shouted after observing Chris's head.

"Oh, is that the girl who delivered the package?"

"_We found him, Zero!" _I-pin cheered.

"Kufufufu, so it was uncle Chris all along…" I chuckled, relieved that I didn't have to ask every elderly person in Nanimori.

…

I wasn't sure what to find in the package, but certainly not what I just found. The small object in my hands resembled a green Nintendo ds lite, but instead of the usual logo there was a 'V' on the cover. I opened the device and saw that the display was like a normal Nintendo ds lite too… _why did Verde send me a gaming console that has already been invented?_

_To the Neo Estraneo Primo_

_I made something that children around my age would like, it's a tracking device disguised as a gaming console. It can be used as both though. The manual is included._

_Verde_

I blinked a few times in surprise when I read the letter that was included in the package before I burst out laughing.

"Kufufufufufufu, what does Verde think that kids are doing these days?"

…

**Omake: how Chris got (one of) his blackmail material **

_A few years ago_

"And here we go again…" I sighed as Chris and Verde got in another heated argument. Seth patted me on my shoulder in a comforting way and sat down in the chair next to me. The other Famiglia members continued to eat like Verde and Chris weren't bickering like an old married couple in the canteen, it wasn't an unusual sight after all… sadly enough.

"Can't you two fight this out in a different way?" I complained. Both Christ and Verde stopped shouting and looked at me with interest showing in their eyes.

""You wouldn't mind if I _accidentally_ kill this brat/damned baby?"" They both asked a bit too happily before they glared at each other again.

"That is _not_ what I'm saying." I facepalmed, _I didn't mean that they should be fighting each other! _"I meant that you should do something else than bothering the others who are trying to eat peacefully… in fact I know what you can do." I muttered the last part. I looked around in the canteen until I saw what I was looking for.

"Dimitri! Can I use your cards?" I asked the said man. The naturally pale man looked up from his card house that just collapsed and nodded slowly. He gathered his cards and brought them to me. "Thanks." I smiled to the man before I returned my attention to Verde and Chris who were looking at me warily as I started to shuffle the cards slowly.

"A simple card game: poker. Who loses has to do one thing that the winner demands." I stated calmly.

"Then the brat has to stop bothering me when I want you to do experiments, Zero." Verde smirked.

"…Then you have to wear a dress, Verde." Chris grinned evilly after thinking for a while.

"I will be the dealer." I said quickly before Verde got a chance to complain. "Everyone starts with fifty coins and you lose when you have lost all your coins." I grinned as illusionary coins appeared. I chuckled evilly as I started to shuffle the cards more seriously and professionally. _I haven't played card games in a long time…_

"Let's begin."

…

"Zero… remind me to never play card games with you ever again." Chris groaned when his last coins went to the dealer.

"Where did you learn this anyways?" Verde asked in a frustrated, but curious, tone as his last coins went to the dealer too.

"Kufufufu, I just got a lot of experience." I laughed while I played . "Now… it's a tie so you both have to do what the other told you to do."

_And that is how Chris managed to get pictures of Verde in a puffy green dress and how Chris couldn't complain anymore whenever Zero has to do experiments for Verde… and how the entire Neo Estraneo Famiglia vowed to never play card games against Zero Estraneo._

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Personally I couldn't imagine a mother who would forget the birthday of their child… no matter how oblivious they might be. So I made Nana plan this party together with Reborn :). And then we have Verde who is totally clueless about what children normally would like… I suspect that he secretly likes spy movies because of their gadgets. Did anyone see the cameo appearance of a certain fighting maniac by the way? Anyways, I can't spoil everything yet right? So I can't say anything about Byakuran yet, wait until the future arc kufufufufufufu (evil laugh).** **Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 14: incidents and accidents

Nanimori has always been a peaceful town… before certain people arrived. Of course it is still peaceful, the demon prefect wouldn't let any disturbances get away after all, but lately there were some cases of serious explosions in town. Strangely enough nothing was damaged, so the peaceful life of the residents of Nanimori continued…

Except for the life's of a few people. The members of the Momokyokai were a great example of those people. The yakuza in Nanimori always had a great amount of fear in them because of a certain skylark, but this time it wasn't the feared prefect that worried the Momokyokai-members.

"I know that the pay is great, but accepting a job from _them_?" A man scowled.

"We need the money." His companion with an odd hairstyle sighed at the sky.

"I know… but how do we know who the target is? The only information that we got was that the Neo Estraneo Primo is in Japan after all. We don't know who they are or what they look like!" The scarred man stated as he looked around in the empty streets.

"If they asked _us_, then the chance is great that they are in Nanimori." The other man stated.

"Even so, there are a lot of people here in Nanimor-"

"Thank you for your help last time Estraneo-chan." The owner of Takesushi thanked a small girl, interrupting whatever the Momokyokai-member wanted to say. Both the men turned their attention to the girl when they realized what the girl was called. "And thank your uncle too… tell Takeshi to take it easy with his training."

"Kufufufu, sure Yamamoto-san, but call me Zero!" The white haired young girl waved back at the older man as she walked away.

"Could that be the target?" The scarred man wondered out loud.

"No, she is too young. But she definitely has a connection with the target." The other man stated and both the men agreed on their next course of action. The girl turned around when she saw the shadows of the two men looming over her but she didn't get the chance to scream as the men covered her mouth. But they didn't notice the small flicker of indigo before they captured the girl.

…

"So… can you repeat the reason why you guys kidnapped me?" I asked. The men in the room tied me to a chair but they didn't notice that I replaced myself with an illusion. Right now I'm standing behind the two men who were trying to intimidate the tied up illusion.

"Shut up brat, now call your boss!" one of the men threated. I tilted my head in confusion. Didn't they know that they _tried_ to tie the very boss that they were looking for to a chair?

"I have absolutely no idea of what you are talking about."

"Don't try to trick us brat!" The other man warned me.

"Your last name is enough proof!" The first man stated and I sighed along with my illusion.

"Sirs, I assure you that the Primo wouldn't like the fact that you guys tried to kidnap a ten years old kid… or are you guys pedophiles?" My illusion deadpanned.

"Now you've crossed the line…" The man with the weird hairstyle threated as he walked closer to the illusion. I sighed and dissolved the illusion, ignited more of my flames and created another illusion. The men didn't even notice the difference in the room except for the now empty chair.

"Where did the brat go?!" the man with a katana shouted. He and the scarred man looked frantically around, but they only saw an empty dark grey room and each other. I chuckled at the two men who were trying to find me while I walked to the chair to retrieve my schoolbag and prepared to leave the building. _It was almost too easy to get out of here…_

"Tsuna!"

"Juudaime!" I looked at the door where two familiar guys were standing. _I knew that it was too easy…_

"…Good morning to you guys too. Tsuna isn't here by the way. Just me and my kidnappers" I gestured to the men who were still looking for me.

"What happened to them, midget?" Gokudera frowned. Two grown men who were looking around like there was no one in the room is… quite an unusual sight for the Mafioso.

"Don't worry about them, they are simply hallucinating." I shrugged. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Tsuna has been kidnapped by the Momokyokai!" Yamamoto answered panicky. _Tsuna has been what? _I should have known that escaping wouldn't be this easy…

"I haven't seen Tsuna here, maybe he's in the conference room? I saw more yakuza members there." I deducted. "Shall I help you guys?"

"What can a weak midget like you do?"

"I may be weak, Gokudera-san, but I've got my tricks." I smirked.

"Maa maa, Zero, it isn't safe here, you know. It could end up in a fight here and you shouldn't get involved in that."

"Yamamoto-san… well… I never planned to fight anyways…" I pouted, I can't really join fights with this body… and I haven't really used a weapon in combat since my last life. But that doesn't mean that I can't use weapons. _And especially illusions._

"But I will help you guys to get in."

"How?" Gokudera asked warily.

"You'll see…"

…

"It's somewhere around here." the blonde man stated. Tsuna looked around in horror, right now they were simply walking into a yakuza's den… He wondered why they weren't caught yet, or _hell,_ killed. The room was dimly lit and the dark walls made the room darker than it actually was, anyways the room gave Tsuna a bad feeling. Especially when he saw a familiar object on the ground.

"It's Yamamoto's schoolbag-" Tsuna began when he noticed the said bag but then he noticed something else which made his jaw drop. The enormous claw-like mark across the wall and a practically destroyed door. "W-what happened here?!"

"I don't know…" The Italian frowned as he looked through the gap where the door once stood. Tsuna peeked through it too and saw his friends unharmed… and the tattered yakuza-members around them.

"Juudaime!"

"Tsuna, you were safe!"

"Good morning to you too Tsuna." Tsuna almost jumped up in shock when he heard the third voice. He turned around and saw the albino girl standing behind him in the former-empty room.

"Hieee, Zero sin-"

"Since when am I here? Kufufufu Tsuna, you really have to start paying attention to your surroundings more. I was here even before Yamamoto-san and Gokudera-san." The girl chuckled. The blonde man turned around and noticed the girl too.

"…What are you doing here little girl, it isn't safe here." he frowned after staring at the girl for a while, making sure that it wasn't a ghost or something. The room was definitely empty when they came in…

"I was kidnapped by these men and managed to escape before Yamamoto-san and Gokudera-san came in and said that Tsuna was kidnapped too. So I helped them with breaking in." The girl, who was definitely not a ghost, sighed.

"Hieee, I'm grateful that you wanted to help me, but it is dangerous for a little girl to be here! You should have escaped!"

"Tsuna please don't judge on appearances or gender, after all I 'opened' the door…" she deadpanned as she gestured to the claw mark. The man and the three teens paled.

"Maa maa, that is right Tsuna. She summoned this weird thing and swish and swoosh the door was gone." A smiling, but pale, Yamamoto said. Tsuna looked at the girl in disbelieve.

"Don't forget that I'm in the mafia too Tsuna…" Zero sighed as she joined the others in the room with the tattered yakuza members.

"Hey little brother… is this another family member of yours?"

"A-ah no Dino-san, Zero is from another Famiglia."

"Kufufufu. That is right, but we have an alliance with the Vongola Famiglia." The girl chuckled. "Nice to meet you Dino Chiavarone-san, my name is Estraneo Zero and I am the _Neo_ Estraneo Primo. Please call me Zero."

…

"N-neo Estraneo?" Dino stuttered. "Nice to meet you too…"

"Kufufufu, that is right Dino-san. Didn't Reborn-san inform you about me?" I chuckled. For a good reason I'm really happy to meet a descendent of an old friend who does _not _look _exactly_ like his ancestor. No headaches this time!

"So _you_ are the Primo… come on men, let's capture the target." Someone said. The said man staggered and unsheathed his katana. I sighed and created another illusion of myself and walked back into the other room. I really shouldn't get involved in fights because of my bones…

Before I left the room I turned around just in time to see Dino attack… Gokudera, Yamamoto and himself. _Even if he doesn't look exactly like his ancestor he acts exactly the same_, I mused.

_Was the Chiavarone clumsiness hereditary?_

"…Well that escalated quickly." I stated as Tsuna suddenly roared and stripped. He joined the fight with a dying will flame on his head and… his oversized hands. _How and when did they grow anyways?_

…Knowing Tsuna, it probably is something crazy. Suddenly there were other men joining the battle too, luckily enough they seemed to be on our side… and Dino started to attack the right people. _How confusing…_

I shrugged and decided that my assistance wasn't needed anyways, and walked to the chair my illusion-self was tied to before. When I considered my options, I found out that we would never make it to school in time so I sat down in the chair, opened my once forgotten schoolbag, and looked for stuff to do. When the others were done fighting I already finished my homework for tomorrow.

"Done?" I asked.

"Hieee, Zero why are you still here?!"

"I was finishing my homework for tomorrow… don't we have to go to school now?"

"Hieee, we're going to get bitten to death!"

…

In fact _they_ were bitten to death while _I_ simply lost my lunch to Hibari _again_.

When we reached the school grounds, after Tsuna got dressed again, Hibari was already waiting for us at the school gates. He started off with beating- no biting the guys to death. Then he turned his attention to me. In my panic I threw the first thing I grabbed from my bag to his head before he could reach me. _My bento_. He caught it and then, surprisingly, let me go…

_Maybe should try to get over my Alaude-trauma_, I sighed when my stomach made a rumbling sound during lunch on the roof again. I lost my lunch twice already and I didn't want to survive on the kindness of Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto again… minus Gokudera. The prick didn't give me anything. Then I realized that there was no way of escaping the prefect and I sighed in defeat.

_Maybe I will start to bring two bento's to school from now on, just to be sure…_

"Ciaossu Zero."

"Hello Reborn-san." I sulked.

"Why were you kidnapped by the yakuza?" Reborn asked when he sat on my shoulder.

"That is what I wanted to know too, I followed them to see why they were trying to kidnap me but they didn't give me their objective." I pouted. I wasted a lot of time… and my lunch.

"By the way, Reborn-san. Why didn't you tell Dino-san about me?"

"Baka-Dino should have done research if he wanted to know that you were here."

"…So it was a kind of test?"

"Indeed, and he failed miserably." Reborn stated. Suddenly I pitied the blond man.

…

If there was anything that any good looking mafia bosses would be afraid of, then it would be fangirls. Or girls in general… or the female population on earth. Sadly enough for Dino, he was good looking. What was sadder, was that the girls loved his looks and fought over him all the time. Which made him fear crowds of women…

And the saddest thing of all… Reborn knew that.

_I should have done my research_, Dino shivered in fear when another girl started to stare at him. Why did Reborn have to know his weakness? Why did he have to punish him, even though he was already 'graduated' from his tutelage? _Why did he have to use my weakness to punish me? _Dino panicked.

Dino Chiavarone was left behind in a shopping mall by Reborn as a punishment for not doing the proper research before coming to Nanimori. And the worst thing of all was that it was sales day… which meant an awful lot of women.

"It's not like Reborn never forgets something…" Dino muttered sarcastically and weakly because he was afraid of the many women who were now staring at him like he was prey. They were making him quite wary.

"Hmm, I've never seen him forgetting something up to now…" someone behind Dino mused. "But if he claims to have forgotten something, he is lying. Knowledge rules the world after all, so there is no way that Reborn-san would forget something." Dino almost jumped up in surprise and turned around, to see the Neo Estraneo Primo chuckling.

"Kufufufu. Really Dino-san, your reactions are almost as funny as Tsuna-san's, maybe it's because you are both Reborn-san's students?" She wondered.

"Since wh-"

"Since when am I here? I actually just arrived, even mafia bosses need casual clothes you see?" the girl smirked. "So… what is the Chiavarone Decimo doing in a humble shopping mall with many women looking at you like you are their prey?"

"…Reborn."

"Hmm, I understand… because you forgot to do research?"

"…"

"Do you need some help with getting out of this mess?" Zero offered the blond man. Dino blinked a few times in confusion before he finally understood what this girl meant. _Saving him from the women._

"Tha-" he started, but then he tripped.

…

_Flashback_

"I know that the first impression is the most important one, Giotto, but could you please calm down now?" I sighed when the mafia boss started to hyperventilate.

"B-but my hair!"

"I thought that I already got it covered?"

"But we're not sure if the illusion would suddenly stop right? My hair is still pink underneath your illusion!"

"Giotto, trust me. My illusions are way too advanced to 'suddenly stop', I must be utterly distracted if you want it to suddenly stop." I huffed.

"…Right! I can do this!" he smiled after thinking for a while.

"The Chiavarone Primo is here." A maid announced.

"R-right!"

"Kufufufu, calm down Giotto. You have charmed scarier mafia bosses before, have confidence in yourself… Are you ready?" I laughed as I walked to the door.

"Yes… I think." He stated. I sighed when I heard the last part, but the smile on my face stayed. _Giotto never changes_, I mused as I opened the door.

"Welcome to the Vongola mansion, Caius Chiavarone." I smiled at the tall dark haired man before I took a step back to let them enter the room. "Please come in."

"Ah tha-" the Chiavarone Primo began, but then he tripped. The only thing I could do was blink in surprise and try to catch the huge man… who was heavier than I thought.

Before I knew it a heavy weight was pressing me on the ground. The pain that suddenly flared on the back of my head caught me off guard… and the painful feeling of teeth colliding against teeth shocked me enough to forget a very important thing.

"S-s-sorry!" the tall man blushed as he got off me as fast as he could.

"…Damn…Sorry Giotto…" I apologized when I recovered from the shock and noticed his hair having a disturbing shade of pink… and his dark mood. "I was kind of… utterly distracted?"

…

_It is definitely the genes_, I sighed when I helped the taller man up. Luckily enough I could dodge the falling Chiavarone boss this time, I wasn't too sure if my bones would survive to be crushed by him after all… I'm glad that my reflexes got 'trained' in some of my past life's...

_Even though those trainings almost killed me several times…_

…

"So you are saying that the turtle grew when it came in contact with water and literally crushed you?" Zero asked after his explanation. Tsuna nodded at the girl who was wandering around in the suspicious room. "I wonder why the hospital has this kind of room, it doesn't feel like a hospital, but… this place strangely enough reminds me of Dimitri's lab back in Italy." she stated after looking around.

"What kind of lab is it?" Tsuna asked. Every distraction is welcome because he couldn't stop thinking about the shady room he was in.

"Well, he mostly experiments with dead bodies." She mused as she sat down in the chair next to his bed. "His main goal is to find a way to help the crime investigators with finding clues left in the victim's body. That is why he also investigates and dissects the corpses for them so now and then… Though I think that dissecting human bodies could simply be his hobby." the brunet paled at the thought of the dissected corpses in a place similar to the room that he as placed in… wait a minute… _no way right?_

"Hieee did you just say dissect?" the boy shrieked, but before the girl could answer her phone vibrated. The violet eyed girl looked at the screen of her phone and smiled excited.

"Sorry Tsuna, I will have to go now if I don't want to miss the last episode of KatekYoshi Hitmen Rebirth. I really want to know if Yoshi is able to defeat Pineapple-man without the help of his demon tutor…" the girl smiled as she rose from her seat. "So, bye."

"Hieee, don't leave me here alone Zero!"

"Get better soon Tsuna!"

…

**Omake: an incident which has been erased from history (by Giotto)**

"Gyahahahahaha" A green haired man laughed as he ran past me into the living room.

"Damn it Lampo! Get back here!" a pink pineapple haired man shouted as he ran past me too. I blinked a few times in surprise and confusion before I burst out laughing.

"Kufufufufufu, what happened to you Daemon?"

"That brat did something to my hair!" he shouted while chasing the green haired man.

"And you're not the only one…" another voice behind me said darkly. I turned around to see G… with even brighter pink hair than usual.

"Kufufufufu, this is kufufufufu hilarious." I continued laughing. Not long after G started to chase Lampo too another person joined us…

"Giotto… there is something different about you. Did you change your hairstyle?" I grinned when I saw the pink haired boss.

"This is not funny…" He sulked. "How am I supposed to meet the Chiavarone boss now?"

"Well… I could always cover your hair with an illusion." I offered.

"Thanks… that would be great. Now please excuse me, I have an prankster to punish." Giotto smiled gently before the smile dropped as he started to chase after Lampo too.

"Maa maa, what is happening here?"

"I don't know but it looks EXTREME!"

"Good morning Asari, Knuckle, I see that you guys were spared from the pink doom." I grinned at the men who entered the living room too. "Lampo probably got the special hair dye that I bought to take revenge on Cozart" I said as I groaned at the memory of my empty secret stash of chocolate.

Chocolate!

The only thing that could keep me unstressed besides hot chocolate and especially when I was surrounded by these men! So I planned to dye his hair pink as revenge but the bottle with the hair dye mysteriously disappeared yesterday…

_At least I know where it went now_, I mused as I returned my attention to the grown men who were chasing the younger man. It was a funny sight until I felt the temperature drop a few degrees.

"Herbivores, for crowding and changing my hair color… I will beat you to death."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Does anyone remember the beautifully awkward meeting between Giotto and the Chiavarone Primo that I mentioned before? When I was writing this chapter I thought that it would be funny to mention their first meeting when Zero meets Dino… and the reasons why the meeting was so awkward. The 'training' that Zero mentioned was given by Serena and Renato Sinclair… and by a certain skylark. In fact, that training started even before the first meeting with Caius (I don't remember why I called him this again), but when Alaude heard of the accident the training increased…  
Ahem, anyways it will take a little bit longer until Mukuro comes but I have most of the daily life arc written out. All that is left is typing and such… And for the future arc, after the daily life arc there will be the Kokuyo arc, Varia arc and maybe an original arc (I'm still debating about that one) before it will begin.  
AND THIS STORY MANAGED TO GET 50 REVIEWS (it is 52 now, but it is still awesome)! Thank you for reviewing guys! This needs a celebration omake!**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 3**

"Watch out Reborn!" The three years old Renata warned her brother as she ran past him in an incredible speed for a toddler. "Mommy is back!" the older brother paled when he heard what his sister just shouted and ran after her.

"Why is mother back already?" he asked when he caught up with his little sister.

"I don't kno- watch out!" Renata shouted before she pushed her brother away from the incoming knives.

"… Well done dear, you managed to sense an attack that even professional assassins couldn't sense." Serena Sinclair smiled proudly.

"Kufufufu, I had practice." The youngest Sinclair laughed hesitantly. "Are you alright brother?"

"Of course I am, Renata… and how did you practice?" Renato asked. Renata laughed sheepishly and rubbed her head.

"Well… because mom always wakes me up with a mallet?"

"You what?! Mother what are you trying to do?" Renato asked their mother in horror and disbelieve.

"Eh… It's because… she did not want to become a hitman like you and me, so she refused to train with us…"

"Of course I did mom! Your training is almost worse than the skylark's!" Renata protested. Renato gave his sister a confused look before he turned to his mother again.

"If Renata doesn't want to become a hitman, than you shouldn't wake her up by hitting her with a mallet. I mean, you are _the number one hitwoman_ in the world! You killed people in their sleep with mallets before!" He scolded her.

"But I held back." Serena pouted. "And most of the time Renata dodges it while sleeping!"

"Mother…"

"What?"

"Did you really think that I would believe you?"

"It's true! Right Renata?"

**The Sinclair family is definitely becoming one of my favorite families now and the daily life of the Sinclair's are officially becoming celebration omakes because of that I guess… Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 15: cakes

_No way… why did Bianchi have to join in midway_?! The future Vongola Decimo cried. Now we have to pay one million yen!

"Love will neutralize the poison." Bianchi said. Tsuna sweatdropped. Really? He looked at Reborn who actually has to eat the poi- ahem rice cake.

"Ah I remember now… It's Zero's birthday today." The baby said.

"Hieee, it is?" Then brown haired teen remembered the call he got from Zero in the morning.

…

_Flashback_

'_Sorry that we couldn't come today Tsuna, but we have our own celebrations today.'_

'Eh it's alright Zero…'

'_Great! Happy new year Tsuna!'_

'You too Zero.'

_I wonder what that was about?_ Tsuna wondered.

…

"Hieee, those celebrations she was talking about is her birthday?!" Tsuna shouted in disbelieve.

"Dame-Tsuna, you should pay more attention to your allied Famiglia's" Reborn said.

"The midget's birthday is today?"

"Maa maa, didn't you know Gokudera? Zero told us a while ago." Yamamoto laughed. "I congratulated her already."

"Hahi today?!"

"Zero-chan?" Bianchi wondered while looking at her rice cake. _Maybe Zero would want some too…_

"I congratulated her earlier today too." Kyoko smiled. "Though it was on the phone."

"I EXTREMELY forgot!"

"The Neo Estraneo Primo?" The Italian mafia boss asked.

"Yes, Estraneo Zero is turning eleven today." Reborn answered. _A crisis avoided_, he thought in silence while some of the others panicked. No one would like to eat that poison voluntary after all… except for Zero maybe.

…

"Achoo!" Zero sneezed. _Is someone talking about me?_ the girl wondered. She looked around in the café she was sitting in and shrugged. It was her birthday, so it wasn't too weird that people talked about her. Sipping her hot chocolate in a café in the neighborhood town, she wondered why her uncles tried so hard to keep her out the house.

Even if they are organizing a surprise party, it will all be in vain if the surprise is off and they acted really suspicious… Zero sighed and decided to let it slide, she still had a while before she had to return to her house and act surprised to not hurt her uncles feelings.

She put the now empty cup on the table and pulled a green device from her bag, a gaming console that secretly was a tracking machine too, and started playing a racing game. She was so into the game that she didn't notice that it started to rain and that the café was starting to get flooded by people who were sheltering from the rain.

"Eh e-excuse me?" a soft voice asked. Zero looked up from the game and smiled at the purple haired girl. "C-can I sit h-here?" the cute girl blushed while pointing at the empty seat across the table.

"Hmm?" Zero looked around and noticed that the café was flooded while she was losing her race. "Kufufufu, sure."

"T-thanks…"

"My name is Estraneo Zero, please call me Zero."

"A-ah my name is Hirajama Nagi, b-but you can call me Nagi if you want to."

"Nice to meet you Nagi-san."

"N-nice to meet you too Zero-chan… why are you alone in this café?" Nagi asked.

"Kufufufu… well, it's because today is my birthday and my uncles are organizing a surprise party…" The albino girl chuckled while putting the green device back in her bag. "And why are _you_ here alone, Nagi-san?"

"E-eh because…" She stuttered fidgety. Zero narrowed her eyes in suspicion when she noticed how thin the girl was. Sure, Zero was thin for her age, but that was mostly because of the treatment she got when she was still in the hidden Estraneo base. Nagi was thin for a whole different reason that she was clearly uneasy about and Zero had her suspicions about that.

_Child-neglect. _

"Hiro-san! Can we get two hot chocolates, a slice of the chocolate cake, some pancakes and brownies please?!" Zero asked the waiter.

"Sure Zero-chan!" The waiter shouted back. The young girl smiled at the man before she returned her attention to Nagi. The said girl looked surprised when she saw the warm smile on Zero's face.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to Nagi-san…"

"E-eh?"

"Here you go Zero-chan." Hiro winked when he placed Zero's order on the table. "Two hot chocolates, a slice of the chocolate cake, some pancakes and brownies. Enjoy little princess."

"Kufufufu, thanks Hiro-san. But please don't call me princess, it's disturbing…"

"Whatever you say Zero-chan." The waiter chuckled before walking away.

"Eat." The albino girl ordered the bewildered Nagi.

"B-but-"

"Here you go." Zero said as she shoved a forkful of chocolate cake in the mouth of the protesting girl. "How is the cake?"

"…It's good."

"Great! Continue eating, you need it more than me." the albino girl smiled as she pushed the plates with the cake and pancakes towards the girl sitting across the table. When Nagi opened her mouth to protest again Zero simply picked one of the brownies and shoved it in the mouth if the girl.

"Really Nagi-san. You need it more than me and I will have cake at my surprise party. I saw a huge cake in the fridge yesterday and money isn't an issue. In fact I have way too much money…" Zero muttered the last part. "Hot chocolate is great for warming up by the way, they have the best hot chocolate in Kokuyo here."

At that the older girl started eating while Zero observed her. She noticed how Nagi had to restrain herself to not eat faster and how hungry she actually looked. Zero decided that if she ever meets her parents, she is going to scold them.

When Nagi was done with eating the pancakes and cake, Zero already finished her hot chocolate. The white haired girl looked at the clock on the wall and her pale purple eyes widened in shock.

"Sorry Nagi-san, I have to go now if I don't want to miss the bus to Nanimori!" She apologized as she stood up. "It was nice to meet you, and take the brownies! You need it more than me!"

And after paying she was gone, leaving a very confused girl who wondered why Zero left the image of a mother scolding her daughter…

…

When the door was opened, several party poppers and 'Happy birthday's' could be heard. All the teens, grown men and young woman were surprised… and embarrassed. The ones in front or behind the green door weren't Zero, in fact Zero walked in in that very scene. A scene where various people shouted 'Happy birthday' to everyone but the person who was in fact celebrating her birthday.

"Kufufufu…" Zero chuckled softly, but it quickly became an uncontrollable laughter. "Kufufufufufufufufufu, t-thank you kufufu guys kufufufufufufu."

…

"Ahem, thank you guys." I grinned after controlling my laughter. _At least I didn't have to feign my surprise,_ I mused. I definitely didn't expect Tsuna, Bianchi, Gokudera, Yamamoto, Kyoko, Haru, Ryohei, Dino and Reborn to surprise me… I chuckled at the memory of the shocked expressions on them, minus Reborn, and my uncles. The said uncles carefully carried my birthday cake into the living room.

"Ahem, happy birthday again Zero-sama." Seth smiled.

"Happy birthday Zero." Chris congratulated.

"Kufufufu, thanks uncle Seth, uncle Chris." I chuckled.

"So… these are your friends?" Chris asked while nodding at the girls and Reborn and glaring at the other males. "You guys better not do anything to our Zero." He threated playfully, but I could hear that he was dead serious.

"If any of you hurt Zero-sama, I will blow you up." Seth smiled gently while emitting killer intend. I saw Tsuna freeze at that and I chuckled nervously. I guess that my uncles are trying to be good father-figures… _but blowing people up is a bit too much._

"Maa maa, he looks like you Gokudera. You have the same hair color, maybe you are related?" Yamamoto said to relieve the awkward atmosphere.

"FOR THE LAST TIME, THAT WE HAVE THE SAME HAIR COLOR DOESN'T MEAN THAT WE ARE RELATED, BASEBALL-FREAK!" Gokudera exploded, but I frowned. Now that Yamamoto mentioned it, I could see some resemblance indeed…

"Interesting theory boy, but I have no relatives." Chris smiled sadly, creating a worse mood than before.

Seeing the gloomy expressions of the people surrounding made me feel uncomfortable and I looked around to find a way to lighten the mood. Looking at the table I found something that could work… Neo Estraneo style. But it was a tough decision, it would be a waste but I don't want the mood to stay like this… but it would be a pain to clean up the mess _and it would be such a waste…_

…

My hands scooped some of the cake on the table before I could change my mind and I swiftly threw the sticky mess to the person sitting right across me. Gokudera Hayato… His surprised and utterly shocked expression was hilarious. I had to bite on my lips to not burst out in laughter.

"What… was… that?" Tsuna breathed after a small moment of shocked silence. And I couldn't keep it back anymore.

"Kufufufufufufu." My laugh seemed to shake Gokudera out of his stupor and he glared at me.

"You… HOW FUCKING DARE YOU MIDGET?!" He shouted as he grabbed some cake too and threw it at me… but his aim with cake was absolutely horrible. He missed me and the cake flew over my head instead, right into the face of Seth. After another small moment of silence the awkward mood was broken and cake started to fly everywhere.

"EXTREME food fight!" Ryohei shouted as he officially started the fight. He grabbed some of the cake and threw it randomly at people while punching the pieces that came flying to him and Kyoko to bits. Kyoko and Haru occasionally threw pieces of cake too while laughing and Bianchi took the liberty of showing the girls how to aim with food. Yamamoto simply went baseball mode with the cake and Chris and Seth sighed at the scene, wondering why it always ended up like this on new year's day. They did join the fight after a little while though.

Tsuna and Dino, who were the only ones who haven't joined the fight, were blinking in confusion and wondered what was going on.

…

"Ciaossu Zero."

"Hello Reborn-san." Zero greeted the hitman as she joined him at the sidelines.

"Good job at distracting them."

"Thank you Reborn-san, sometimes we just have to do it Neo Estraneo style…"

"Neo Estraneo style?"

"Hmm, it is a tradition to hold a food fight on new year's day with the leftover food… together with all the residents of Silicy, a town close to our base." The girl sighed. She clearly remembered the day that fireworks were banned in Silicy because some people in her Famiglia were a bit too… enthusiast and blew up the clock tower. She also remembered the mess that they had to clean up afterwards and no, Zero wasn't looking forward to the moment that she has to clean this mess up.

"You are using illusions to supply cake aren't you?" Reborn asked after a while. It wasn't difficult to tell that she must have used real illusions… otherwise they must have an unlimited amount of cake as no one ever seemed to run out of cake to throw. Zero looked at the hitman and winked.

"What can I say? It is a piece of cake…"

"…Sometimes I wish that you weren't the boss of the Neo Estraneo so you could join Dame-Tsuna's Famiglia instead." Reborn muttered after a comfortable moment of silence... if you didn't count the EXTREMES, insults, laughs and hieee's. "You are the best mist flame user I've encountered in years."

"Kufufufu, I will take that as a compliment Reborn-san." Zero laughed. "But I know at least one person who has a great talent with illusions too… I haven't seen him in years though."

"You sound pretty close."

"We had a pretty good student-teacher relationship…" The white haired girl smiled fondly. Reborn then assumed that she must have had a good relationship with her teacher.

…

"Achoo"

"Run Mukuro-san!" a blonde teen shouted while running to the blue haired teen that just sneezed. "This town has gone mad byon!" The teen looked like he wanted to say more, but he didn't get the chance to as a pancake hit him right in the face when he glanced back. When Mukuro saw the crowd his usual smile faltered.

Something in their eyes warned the blue haired teen that he didn't want to get caught up in the fight… not if he wanted to end up like Chikusa, the poor Chikusa was probably still unconscious in the main street of the small town.

He decided that he would never come near Silicy ever again.

**Omake: the aftermath**

In one moment, everyone was still blissfully throwing cake and in the other everyone suddenly collapsed. Even Tsuna and Dino who didn't actually participate in the fight suddenly collapsed, even though they had only been hit a few times…

_What the happened?_ I wondered as I carefully approached the person who was lying the closest to me. Crouching in front of Seth I observed his slightly green face which was stained by bits of birthday cake and purple rice cake… wait a minute. I looked up at the only conscious person on the battlefield and sighed in defeat.

Yes Bianchi was still fine.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Honestly, I considered skipping the new year part but in the end I decided to write this chapter instead. I didn't know what would happen in this chapter and then it was already written (afterwards I found out that I forgot I-pin and Lambo… but let's just pretend that they didn't appear in this event). For why Zero was in Kokuyo: they had the best hot chocolate here. And yes, Reborn misunderstood the student-teacher relationship and yes, Silicy is a town that I made up (sorry if it really does excist…).  
Actually I was already considering to write another fanfiction, just about the Sinclair family, Evanescentfacade. So… maybe you will see it later? And thank you for the compliments me, crazyanimewomen and Redsnidget!  
And I got over 100 followers now! (112 to be exact!) Thank you all! Time for another celebration omake!**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 4**

Renato looked at his younger sister and his father who were blissfully chatting and working in the garage and wondered where they were working on this time. The first time that Renata joined their father in the garage, they somehow managed to make a weird transforming weapon. A _transforming_ weapon! They were muttering odd stuff about fire and such, but Renato didn't remember a lot of _that day_… no, he did not _want_ to remember _that day_.

_That day_, his father claimed Renata as his successor as weapons dealer and designer. And _that day_ was the first time that he saw a full blown fight between his parents. His mother who wanted Renata to become a hitman went all out on her husband… strangely enough it ended up as a tie.

Sure, Serena Sinclair was a hitman but Renatus Sinclair wasn't the most (in)famous weapons dealer in the underworld for no reason. Whatever the weapons expert lacked in strength and defense he covered with skill that even the best hitwoman in the world couldn't keep up with. The only reason why the town was still intact, was Renata who interfered the fight by saying that she wanted to be a weapons designer instead of a hitman.

Serena Sinclair never gave up though and continued training her daughter with much enthusiasm. Too much enthusiasm, if you ask Renata.

Renato shivered in horror when a few suppressed images of _that day_ passed through his mind and decided to leave his father and younger sister alone for now. He had to keep his mother away from them if he didn't want a repeat of _that day_.

**And because I was bored:**

**Omake 2.5: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 4.5**

More often than not, Renato found himself waking up at Sunday while staring at the curious face of Renata. His little sister liked to conceal her presence and tug on his sideburns to wake him up… which was terrifying in a way. Renato was being trained as a hitman after all, so he knew how to sense presences and yet his three years old sister always managed to escape his radar.

He didn't need to say that he wasn't able to beat Renata in a game of hide and seek.

Anyways, he tried to ask his sister why she always woke him up like this and she answered:

"Because I can't seem to figure out how your side burns curl up like that… it just can't be natural!"

…Renato honestly didn't know if he should feel offended at that.

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 16: weirdness and new information

I've lived enough times to think that I've seen the weirdest things in life… _but I was wrong, _I mused. I've seen many weird things in this life that easily got into the list of 'strangest thing that I've seen before', like the fact that Reborn could invade our class as a teacher during parents visitation day… without anyone being suspicious about a baby being a teacher. That even my uncles didn't recognize him was even weirder…

But the weirdest thing of all that earned a spot in the list, is Tsuna's weird hobby…

stripping.

_No matter how many times I see it, it is just too weird_, I thought when Tsuna roared and stripped again and proceeded with casually beating some men in suits up. As usual, his boxers had an interesting pattern, I wonder if I can find a tie with this pattern for Seth, and he had a dying will flame on his head… _now I think about it, he only stripped whenever he activates his flames…_ Could his dying will flames have a connection with his stripping habits? But I can't remember that Giotto ever stripped when he used his flames before… except for that one time, but that was an accident!

"Ciaossu Zero." Reborn greeted as he jumped on my shoulder, surprising me out of my thoughts. "Why do you look so troubled?"

"Hello Reborn-san. And well… why does Tsuna strip whenever he uses his flames?" I asked the small hitman.

"He was hit by the dying will bullet." The said hitman smirked. "It's a special bullet created by the Vongola. When you are shot with this bullet, you will die and be reborn again to do whatever you regretted before dying. The stripping is a side effect."

"…That is… so convenient!" I exclaimed. Back then with the first generation of the Vongola, we literally had to put our life in danger to train. Though having illusions to let someone believe that they died worked as well… but not everyone can do that! Having this bullet makes training so much easier!

"Sure…" Reborn stated, probably a bit confused by my reaction.

"Hieee Zero, s-"

"Since when am I here? I just arrived Tsuna… in fact you are close to my house now. Do you want to come in for a change of clothes?" I asked the boy. Tsuna blushed heavily and started stuttering incomprehensible stuff. Reborn, who was still on my shoulder, made the teen stop stuttering by simply smirking evilly. I chuckled softly at their antics, but then the younger boy caught my attention. The brown haired boy was staring at me with wide eyes.

"Are you Zero… Estraneo?" he asked after staring at me for a bit longer.

"Yes?" The wide eyes of the boy started to sparkle and he smiled brightly.

"_The_ Zero Estraneo?! The Neo Estraneo Primo?" The boy asked excited. I blinked a few times in surprise.

"…Yes?"

"I always wanted to meet you! I never ranked you before!" He beamed.

"Sure… Well do you want to come too?" The boy beamed even brighter and nodded in response.

_That was… weird…_

…

"Welcome back Zero-sama… do I need to worry about _that_?" Seth asked when we entered the living room. For once, I was glad that some of the experiments of my Famiglia members destroyed the clothes that they were wearing, or Seth would have a much worse reaction than this.

"Kufufufu, don't worry about it, uncle Seth, Tsuna strips a lot."

"Ok then… Is this why you bought some male clothes in a bigger size Zero-sama?"

"Yes."

"I will get some of those clothes then." Seth sighed before he walked away. "Just try to not strip too often in the winter Vongola. I won't judge your hobbies."

"N-no stripping is not my hobby" Tsuna tried to explain to the man who already walked away. "You see, there is a bullet called the dying will bullet and-"

"Kufufufu, don't worry Tsuna, you can always explain it when he is back." I chuckled. "I thought that stripping was your hobby too before Reborn-san just explained it to me… which was earlier today."

"Hieee, you too!?"

"Of course Dame-Tsuna, you never explained it to her after all." Reborn stated.

"Anyways, does anyone want some hot chocolate? Espresso for you Reborn-san?"

"Yes please." The younger boy smiled.

"Thank you Zero." Reborn said.

"Kufufufu. Sure, sit down then." I smiled before I walked to the kitchen. When I returned with the cups Tsuna was already dressed in the orange hoody and black sweatpants that Seth brought back with him.

"Here you go guys, my name is Estraneo Zero as you know. But you can just call me Zero." I told the younger boy when I sat down in one of the couches. "What is your name?"

"My name is Fuuta." The boy smiled. "Nice to finally meet you Zero, I wanted to meet you for quite a while now."

"Ranking Fuuta?" Seth asked. "What are you doing in Nanimori?" _Ranking Fuuta?_ What a weird nickname… though it is better than the nicknames I give.

"Well… I was chased by some bad guys… but Tsuna-nii got rid of them! I came here because Tsuna-nii was in Nanimori and I heard rumors about Zero being here too and I couldn't let this chance slip, I wanted to meet you for a while Zero." He said as he turned his attention to me.

"Why would you want to meet me?" I asked.

"I never got the chance to rank you before and I heard a lot of rumors about you!" Fuuta smiled.

"What kind of rumors?" I wondered out loud.

"Eh… rumors about you being a ghost?" The boy answered sheepishly. I couldn't help but laugh at that rumor, this one was new for me though I heard many other rumors about me before… _Actually the ghost rumor makes sense if I think about certain incidents around Halloween._

"Anyways, would you please be my friend and let me rank you?" Fuuta asked with puppy eyes.

"Sure." I nodded. _What an interesting kid…_

…

"Here I go…" Fuuta muttered. "This is Fuuta, I can hear you ranking planet…" I blinked in confusion when I suddenly felt something tug on my clothes. My eyed widened in surprise when Fuuta and other stuff suddenly began to float. Only when some of the vials on Seth's belt floated into the air too, I got out of my stupor and grabbed the couch to avoid floating too.

_Is this ranking?_

"Out of 86,280 people, Estraneo Zero is the number one mafia member with the strangest past."

_That wasn't surprising_, I sweatdropped. I was sure that there was no mafia member who could remember their last life's and who was experimented on beside me.

"You are also the youngest Primo ever."

_Not really surprising either…_ I founded the Famiglia at the age of five after all.

"You are also the first on the ranking of 'mafia members who would do something irresponsible to safe someone'."

_Ok?_ This one was weird…

"You are also the most knowledgeable person about flames in the mafia and the second best metal craftsman." Fuuta ended his ranking. "…I need to write this down." He muttered before everything fell to the ground again and he pulled a huge book out of his jacket.

…

Reborn looked at the confused girl and his dame-student who were staring at the boy who pulled a huge book out of his jacket. He was amused by their expressions, but that didn't change the fact that he was shocked by the rankings. Sure, it wasn't strange that she was the youngest Primo ever and that she had the strangest past amongst all the mafia members in the world.

But he was shocked to hear that she was the most knowledgeable person about flames in the mafia and the second best metal craftsman… metal craftsman were the only ones that could make flame resistant weapons. He knew that the Neo Estraneo Famiglia made most of the flame resistant weapons that Talbot didn't make, but he didn't know that it was Zero who made them… just like Renata, who used to make flame resistant weapons too.

_How much can someone be like Renata anyways?_

But Reborn didn't get the chance to confront the girl about the metal crafting-matter as the dubious looking liquids that various broken vials contained finally reached each other and created a huge explosion.

…

"Ciaossu Zero." Reborn greeted the shivering girl. "Aren't you dressed a bit too thickly?"

"Hello Reborn-san, and I can still get cold even if I can't get _a_ cold." The girl smiled behind her scarf. "Thank you for inviting me too… though I can't really play along."

"I know Zero, you have your… medical condition after all." Reborn stated. He saw the look that Zero gave to the others who were holding a snowball fight, something in her eyes told him that she would have loved to join them if her bones weren't _that_ weak.

"Do you like the snow, Zero?" He asked after observing her for a while.

"Of course I do! I love it! It's just sad that I can't join the battle." She smiled sadly. "If only I had enough sun when I was younger…" Reborn heard her mutter. The hitman stared at the younger girl, wondering if she meant something more than the sun in the sky.

"…Well, do you want to play a game?" Zero offered. Reborn snapped out of his thoughts and noticed the deck of cards in Zero's hands.

"Sure Zero, just know that I won't be going easy on you." He smirked. Renata was the only one who ever won a game from him and she was a _monster_ in card games, so he was sure that he would win.

"Do you want to join in too?" Zero asked Bianchi who approached the illusionary table that Zero set up.

"Sure Zero-chan." She smiled gratefully. Reborn noticed that Bianchi was sad about not being invited for the snowball fight, and that she was glad that she was at least invited to this game… he decided to invite Bianchi next time he planned something, so she wouldn't throw a tantrum again like that time in Milan.

The target died a more painful death than he deserved that day…

"Hmm… Let's play poker." Zero smirked as illusionary coins appeared out of nowhere, Reborn was shocked to see her expression. A face that he was used to see… when Renata was utterly _destroying_ him in card games. His face didn't reveal the panic that he was feeling when Zero shuffled the cards with skills that professionals would envy.

…

"How dare you to play without me?" Bianchi asked nonchalantly, but I knew that she was sulking. I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly when I realized that I might have… been too harsh on them? Both Reborn and Bianchi utterly lost after all and now they are both sulking. I sweatdropped when I saw the others panic about the kids being hypnot- no now it was threatened… _I really should have held back a bit_. Reborn muttered a few things before he walked to the others too.

"Since we have three teams now, we have to change the rules of the snow fight tournament…" he began. I sighed when I realized what he was doing. "It's still going to be a fight for Leon, but this time you'll win the moment you catch it." _He is definitely…_ "And now Leon can move around too… it's Leon turbo!" _venting his frustration on the others…_

"Kufufufu, how Renato-like." I chuckled softly when I remembered a similar reaction from Renato.

_Like father, like son._

…

"Kufufufu, how Renato-like." Zero chuckled softly, but not soft enough to escape Reborn's hearing. _Renato…_ Reborn almost dropped Leon when he heard that, no he actually did drop Leon. Luckily enough he already explained the rules, so it didn't look too suspicious to the others. Reborn slowly turned around to see Zero smiling happily behind her scarf at the 'playing' people behind him.

_She knows my real name?_

…

**Omake: an accident which has been erased from history (by Giotto) **

"Are you sure that this will work?" the blond boss asked.

"Don't you trust your own ability?" I smirked. "Don't worry Giotto, you survived the death mountain training so you should be able to control your flames better now. Try to focus on your flames and remember that when the flames are used like this, they will be able to do physical damage too, so be careful. Just compress the energy and release it, just like how you were taught."

"…Here goes nothing then." He sighed as he closed his amber eyes. For a few seconds the entire mountain was silent and something in his hands glowed orange, pure bright orange.

Then the entire mountain simply lighted up.

I had to close my eyes because of the brightness, but when I opened my eyes again I met the sight of the huge amount of orange flames that was starting to burn down the mountain. After a few seconds of panicking, I started to create real illusions of water.

"Damn it Giotto! You summoned too many flames and compressed them too much!" I shouted while I tried to extinguish the sky flames with the illusionary water. "You could have burned down _everything_ if I wasn't here! I told you to-" I stared at the grown man who wasn't only wet because of the illusionary water that accidentally hit him, but also stripped from most of his clothing.

"…Nice underwear Giotto."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**An earlier update this time, because I won't be able to update in the next few days. Zero actually didn't know anything about the dying will bullet, so she thought that stripping was indeed Tsuna's hobby… poor Tsuna. Next chapter is going to be difficult to write, but I think that I'll manage… at least I hope I will. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 17: weapons

Renato Sinclair, better known as Reborn these days, wondered how long it has been since he heard his real name the last time. It has definitely been a long time since he heard someone mention the name 'Renato' in his presence, long enough to think that that person has completely disappeared from earth. And now he heard it again.

Renato, a name that is supposed to be unknown by the young girl who was now standing in front of him. If he _suspected_ that she had a connection with Renata before, then he was sure now. There was no way that anyone could have known his real name unless he told them himself… or unless the person in question has a connection to his family. But that wouldn't be possible.

Especially not after he found out about the undeniable similarities between this girl and his supposed dead sister. The same behavior, habits, laughs, love for hot chocolate and even the same skills in poker. And if those weren't enough similarities, she was a metal craftsman too. The only other metal craftsmen that Reborn knew were Talbot and, of course, Renata. There were simply too many similarities between Zero and Renata for her to have a mere connection.

_No, there must be more than that._

Reborn already had a few theories about the girl, although all of them are equally unbelievable. One of the theories was that Zero was a clone of Renata, which was very unlikely if you look at their outer appearances. Another theory was that she had his sister's brains, those mad scientists were capable of everything after all. Reborn would actually have believed this theory if he didn't personally attend his sister's cremation almost sixteen years ago.

Then there was a theory about Zero being the reincarnation of Renata. This theory made the most sense amongst his other theories, but was one of the least believable ones too… But if curses that could turn adults into children were real, couldn't reincarnation be real too? It wasn't very likely, but there was a possibility. So he had '_asked'_ an acquaintance of his about the experiments that the Estraneo Famiglia used to do before they were destroyed and he wasn't disappointed by the findings.

They were researching _reincarnation_ amongst other things.

The reincarnation-theory suddenly became more believable when he heard that. Sadly enough, this theory was the most difficult one to prove. The only way of confirming that Zero was indeed the reincarnation of Renata, was to let her slip up and make her confirm the fact herself. But knowing the mist user, she wouldn't slip up that easily. Neither Renata or Zero would.

But there was another way of recognizing his younger sister. Reborn could identify her flames, for flame signatures are even more unique than fingerprints. Viper's flame signature, for example, was a typical one for the mist flame users: tricky and secretive. Renata's flame signature on the other hand was knowing and a little bit mischievous, though it was secretive in its own way too.

_But Zero used her illusions in front of you before_, something in the back of his head argued. So why didn't he recognize her when she conjured the cakes, the illusionary table or coins? And then, after thinking for a while, Reborn remembered that a thirteen years old Renata managed to get into a casino, shadowing him and his father. She used her mist flames to disguise herself and somehow she even managed disguised her own flames! Not even Reborn, who practically seen _memorized_ her flame signature, could identify her until she dropped her disguise.

_Renata could take a different identity if she wanted to and actually get away with it._

So _if_ Zero was Renata, then she would be able to disguise her flame signature well enough to escape his notice, even when she was using her illusions. Which meant that identifying her flames without a tool to expose her real flames would prove to be difficult.

But it could be possible _with_ a tool… a tool like flame resistant weapons. Flame resistant weapons were tricky tools to make, and he knew it better than the average Mafioso because of firsthand experience. And to say the truth, he sucked at forging flame resistant weapons. Renata made him promise her to never attempt forging or enhancing weapons to become flame resistant ever again because he almost destroyed the garage in his first attempt.

One of the reasons why there aren't many metal craftsmen out there, was because making flame resistant weapons required a certain amount of control over their own dying will flames as the weapons were forged with the dying will flames of their creator.

_Which meant that flame resistant weapons will always hold some of the _real_ flames of the craftsman that made them._

And that is why Reborn should be able to recognize a weapon that Renata made whenever he observed her works.

Which is exactly why he was here.

"…Good morning Reborn-san?" Zero greeted hesitantly. "What are you doing here?"

"Please make me a weapon." Reborn stated. Zero stared at the hitman who was standing in front of the door with confusion showing in her eyes.

"…Why do you need another weapon Reborn-san, is Leon ill?" she asked with a worried expression, but when she saw Leon on the fedora of the hitman the worry was replaced with a relieved smile.

"Because Yamamoto needs a weapon." He lied smoothly. "So could you make him a one?"

"Hmm… Yamamoto-san you say… I got a weapon here that I recently received from my Famiglia that should suit him nicely. It is a transforming baseball bat after all." Zero smiled after thinking for a while. "Wait a minute Reborn-san, come in if you want to." She said before she ran off. Reborn mentally scolded himself, he didn't know that she already had a weapon ready which she didn't make herself…

But Reborn could always find another way to reach his goal.

…

Tsuna couldn't help but stare at the destruction that Yamamoto created with the special weapon provided by the Vongola. He hoped that Hibari wouldn't be around to see the destruction on his precious Nanimori middle school. He would definitely bite them to death and chase after them in hell to bite them to death again if he would see the school grounds now.

"The next weapon." Reborn announced. "Is this!" Tsuna looked at the bat that Reborn pulled out of his jacket and slightly panicked. _Does Reborn want Yamamoto to become a delinquent or something?!_

"This one is provided by our own Estraneo Zero!" Reborn kindly informed Tsuna, who was now close to crying. _Why couldn't any of his friends be _normal_?_

"The midget?" Gokudera muttered.

"That is right, someone in the Neo Estraneo Famiglia found some old designs and decided to base a weapon on them. But as the weapon was designed by another person, Zero wasn't allowed to sell it as a weapon of her own Famiglia. So she gave it to us instead." Reborn explained.

"As expected from one of the most famous inventors-Famiglia's in the world, it screams Yamamoto…" Gokudera mused. Tsuna glanced at Gokudera and wondered if he knew that he was actually complimenting Zero… probably not.

"Oh, I see. It's an baseball-bat-telescope, how creative of Zero-chan's family." Yamamoto laughed. _And you are ok with that?_ Tsuna mentally cried out, again wondering why all of his friends were weirdoes.

Tsuna panicked when it suddenly started to rain bullets and Gokudera added some dynamites in the rain. Yamamoto, luckily enough, managed to dodge the bullets and explosions and managed to pull Tsuna with him too. But then Reborn just had to join in with his own gun. Tsuna actually thought that Yamamoto was going to die when Reborn shot a bullet at Yamamoto, but the tall teen swung his bat just in time and… _wait did it transform?_

"A sword?!" Tsuna shouted.

"Hm, that is pretty good." Reborn stated. "that bat looks normal and is usually a telescope, but when the head speed goes over 300km/h it changes into a sword." Reborn explained.

"So it is a katana?" Tsuna sweatdropped. _Zero's Famiglia must be pretty eccentric if they made stuff like this…_

"**Herbivores**."

"HIEEE!"

"Ciaossu Hibari." Reborn smirked and Tsuna wasn't sure anymore, _should he be more afraid of the furious demon-prefect or his smirking demon-tutor?_

…

**Ding dong**

_Hmm, who could it be?_ I thought before I left the paperwork and hurried from my room to the door. Chris was in Italy, preparing one of the many events there while Seth left for groceries shopping not too long ago, so it would be weird if it was any of my uncles in front of the door… could it be Reborn again then?

"Welco-" I began before I shut the door and blinked in confusion. I was sure that I was just hallucinating because of the paperwork or something like that… There was no way that _Hibari Kyoya_ was standing in front of my door, right? And I just didn't slam the door in his face… right?

…_Damn_. At least it wasn't Alaude, the last time I did that to him he kind of broke down the… door…

"Don't destroy the door!" I shouted as I quickly opened the door again, Verde would never forgive me if a part of the house was destroyed, it was expensive, and while everything was explosions-proof, it probably wasn't skylark-proof. I resisted the urge to run away when I saw the Alaude-lookalike standing in front of my door with his infamous tonfa's in his hands. Ready to break down the poor door.

"Hn handicapped herbivore. You were the one who created the weapon which destroyed some of the school grounds right?" The black haired teen asked with a steel glint in his eyes as he put his tonfa's away.

"Y-ye- I mean no… who told you that?"

"The baby." _Reborn?!_

"W-well, i-it was someone else who made it."

"Hn." _The skylark language?_ I sweatdropped. I thought that only Alaude used that language… and what did he mean with 'back then'?

…

_Flashback _

"W-wait! I shouted when I got the chance to. "I'm not trespassing, I've got the documents here!" I retrieved the said documents from my bag as fast as I could and gave in to the person who tried to hit me. I wasn't even surprised anymore when I saw his Alaude-like face. The voice and presence were enough to make me relive some past trauma's.

"Hn… you can go handicapped herbivore." He said after reading them quickly. "Go before I change my mind…"

…

I paled when I remembered that I accidentally took some of my _weapon designs_ with me that day.

"Y-yes, but someone else made _this_ weapon. T-though I can make and enhance weapons myself too." I added when I saw his expression. The urge to run away intensified several times when Hibari started to smirk.

"Enhance my weapons then." The Alaude-lookalike… stated? It didn't exactly sound like a question, but it didn't sound like an order either. It simply sounded like… Alaude. A request from a friend to a friend… or an acquaintance to acquaintance… Actually, Alaude was good company, and I dare to say a good friend, if you got used to his more violent tendencies.

"…Sure Ala- I mean Hibari-san." I smiled as I pushed some of the nicer memories with the elder skylark away to prevent the tears from falling. "Please come in."

…

The handicapped herbivore led the prefect into her living room and gestured him to sit down. But of course he didn't sit down, he couldn't let a rabbit order him around after all. When the herbivore left the living room Hibari looked around. The living room looked like a normal living room, if you ignored the herbivorous greenness and some charred spots on the walls… wait even on the ceiling were a few black spots!

No, this room doesn't look like a normal living room at all. Something has happened in here, it must have been a big fire or an explosion if even the ceiling was charred, and yet the house was still standing… _how interesting,_ the prefect thought while keeping his face neutral.

The handicapped herbivore walked back in the living room with a cup of coffee and a cup of hot chocolate. After putting down the cups on the table she sat down in one of the couches.

"So, if I got it right you want me to enhance your tonfa's? I could add some interesting features and I can make them flame resistant if you want me to too." She offered. Hibari raised an eyebrow at the last part.

"What do you mean with flame resistant?" He asked, not showing his confusion. But the herbivore ignored him.

"I wonder if yours is cloud like his…" she muttered as she stood up and gestured the confused teen to follow her, completely forgetting the two cups on the table. He followed the rabbit as she led him to the basement… one of the basements.

_Wao, how interesting. This house is bigger than I thought,_ Hibari smirked when they passed another level underground. The basement she led him to was one of the more interesting ones that he saw. The walls inside, that Hibari suspected to be green, were completely covered with designs and drawings. He recognized the neat handwriting and the drawing style that he caught a glimpse of when he first met the white haired herbivore.

Authentic, simple and yet complex designs of _weapons_.

After seeing those designs and documents back then, he did his research on the handicapped herbivore… but he couldn't find anything interesting. He found the usual documents, the same documents about her health as he saw that day, but nothing about her past. He had to use some of his many contacts to find anything about the handicapped herbivore. And even they couldn't find much…

No they couldn't find anything at all.

"Could you hand over your tonfa's please? And you can sit down in one of the chairs if you want to, this could take a while…" the handicapped rabbit interrupted his thoughts. For a change, the prefect took on the offer and sat down in one of the chairs close to the herbivore after handing over his weapons with a glare that promised her to be bitten to death if she dares to do something weird with them.

In swift movements the rabbit detached the weapons and studied every part of the tonfa's. To say the truth, Hibari was quite intrigued by how she was able to detach the weapons. He didn't know that it was possible to detach tonfa's after all.

"Do you have any requests?" She asked while focusing on the weapons, missing the glint in Hibari's eyes that closely resembled excitement.

_This rabbit is getting more and more interesting…_

…

"Why am I in this situation?" I muttered when the delinquent-looking teen stopped me.

"All the sakura trees around here have been reserved." The teen said. "So scram."

"Hmm, but there is no one here…" I sighed. When Reborn almost ordered me to come here today, I wasn't expecting an encounter with someone who wants to send me away immediately… well it could be worse.

"Herbivore, what are you doing here?" someone above us asked. I froze when I recognized the presence and hesitantly looked up. I shouldn't have jinxed myself.

"G-good morning Hibari-san." I greeted hesitantly when the prefect jumped off the tree that he was sleeping in before.

"Handicapped herbivore." He nodded to me. "Go." He ordered the other teen.

"Yes president." He saluted before continuing his patrols.

"The enhancement is passable, handicapped herbivore." Hibari smirked when his subordinate was out of sight.

"Hmm? That was to be expected after you suggested so many new features." I sighed. "Are they working well?"

"Hn."

"That is great then… why am I handicapped by the way?" I asked.

"Hn."

"It's not my fault that I can't fight with this body." I pouted.

"Hn."

"What do you mean with 'you are weak like a rabbit'? I can beat you even without actually fighting!"

"…" Hibari's smirk turned more amused as he snorted. "You are a hundred years too early for that, rabbit."

…

When Tsuna was told to safe a spot in the sakura viewing site, he didn't expect it so empty. Especially since Reborn said that Zero already left for the viewing site a while ago. Tsuna looked around and spotted Zero between some trees talking to someone who was hidden by another tree. This was the first time that Tsuna actually found Zero before she managed to appear out of nowhere.

"Hey Ze…" he happily began as he approached the girl, but then he saw the person that Zero was talking to and he froze.

_WHAT IS ZERO DOING WITH HIBARI!_

"I can beat you even without actually fighting!" he heard the girl argue and Tsuna paled. Did she just challenge the most violent person in Nanimori?

"That midget… is she suicidal?" Gokudera wondered out loud.

"Maa maa, Zero-chan was probably just joking." Yamamoto smiled hesitantly.

"You are a hundred years too early for that, rabbit." Hibari snorted... _wait, Hibari looked actually amused when he said that!_ _And he didn't even call her a herbivore! What is this, is this the end of the world?! _Tsuna mentally screamed.

"Ciaossu Zero, Hibari." Reborn greeted, seemingly unaffected by the unusual duo. Tsuna looked at his tutor and paled even more. That smirk on his face couldn't mean a lot of good things for him.

"I see that you modified those tonfa's Zero." Reborn stated with an almost victorious smirk. Tsuna was close to fainting now he heard that Zero helped Hibari to become even more deadly than before.

"You sent him to me, Reborn-san, I didn't really had a choice." Zero sighed and if it was possible, Reborn smirk grew even wider.

"Hey kid, it's nice to see you again." Hibari greeted the small hitman.

"We want to see the sakura too. How about we compete?" Reborn offered. "Tsuna says that we'll be using the spot as a prize."

"Hieee?! Why are you dragging me into this?!" Tsuna shrieked.

…

"Are we going to continue?" Hibari asked Gokudera when he emerged from the smoke.

"Interesting features." Reborn nodded at the tonfa's as Hibari lashed out on Gokudera.

"Thanks Reborn-san." I smiled wryly. Who would have guessed that Hibari would use the weapon that I provided to attack my friends?

"I'm next." Yamamoto stated while he blocked Hibari's attack.

"Wait, is that the transforming bat?" I muttered.

"Yes it is." Reborn stated. "It is holding itself pretty well against Hibari's tonfa's."

"Not for much longer." I sighed when Hibari used a feature that I've added, a hook, to throw Yamamoto to the ground. "Hibari-san is having way too much fun with the new features…"

"What have you added besides those features?" Reborn asked.

"I kind of made it… flame resistant?" I answered hesitantly. The wide smirk that had been on Reborn's face somehow widened even more, it actually made me wonder if smirking like that didn't hurt…

"Next up is Tsuna." He stated with the smirk still on his face as Leon transformed into a gun. "Hurry up and go berserk." And he shot.

"Reborn! Defeat Hibari as if I were to die!" Tsuna shouted as the sky flames on his forehead ignited and the unfortunate side effect of the dying will bullet occurs. The stripping.

"…Is Tsuna going to fight Hibari-san with a duster?" I asked incredulously when Leon transformed in the almost harmless object. But then again, Tsuna was in his dying will mode so he should be able to survive… probably. If Hibari wasn't able to activate his flames through his tonfa's then Tsuna would be safe…

I probably jinxed myself again, because right after thinking that, a purple spark was to be seen on the shiny metal of Hibari's weapons. Luckily enough for Tsuna, the spark stayed a spark as Hibari was suddenly on his knees.

…

It was _almost_ invisible, but within the purple spark was the tiniest hint of indigo and white. And Reborn noticed that, in fact he was waiting for that small spark because it confirmed all his suspicions. Though it was small, the spark was undeniably identifiable as Renata's flame signature… Zero's flame signature.

_Renata Sinclair and Zero Estraneo are indeed the same person…_

…

**Omake: drastic measure **

"Do I have to spell it out for you? N-o, no."

"Say whatever you want herbivore. But I will keep an eye on you."

"Whatever. Good night Alaude." I scowled as I threw the door to my room close. I can't believe that the skylark followed me all the way from the living room to my room on the third floor just because-

**Crash.**

"Damn it Alaude! Don't destroy the door just because you're a sore loser! No, I did _not_ cheat and no, I will _not_ give you a rematch anytime soon!"

"There is no way that someone could be able to win all the matches herbivore. Like I said, I will keep an eye on you." The platinum blonde scowled as he stepped over the remains of the wooden door.

"And you are taking this drastic measure, only because you lost a few games of poker?!"

"Hn."

"…You've got to be kidding me."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**This chapter was indeed a pain to write but in the end I managed! I hope that this chapter makes sense!  
Sometimes it takes a misunderstanding to get a gist of whatever is happening… has anyone noticed that the information that Reborn got about the Estraneo was actually about someone else? So yeah, a lot of misunderstandings, . , and believe me… it can get worse.  
And I did consider a scenario like that ddmahan922! But if that happens, it has to wait until the rings appear. *considering if I should write the inheritance arc too or stick with the manga.  
Anyways, another early update because I'm going to get busy for a long while… So I probably can't update for a little while I think… sorry? But I got an extra omake as an apology!**

**Omake 2: ****the daily life of the Sinclair's part 5**

For a long time, Renato thought that his younger sister was practically fearless. She wasn't afraid of bugs, which was fortunate for him as he loved bugs, or ghosts and monsters that were shown on the television. Renata Sinclair wasn't even afraid of the sharp blades of the weapons that their mother threw at them. The only thing that he knew that his sister was wary of was skylarks for a reason that he simply couldn't figure out.

But that wasn't really a fear, just… wariness.

And then Renato found out that his sister wasn't as fearless as he thought her to be. And to be honest, he was relieved to find out that his three years old sister had something to fear though he wasn't too sure about what to think of her fears. Because of all the things that she could be afraid of… she was afraid of water.

No, not the water to drink, but she feared the oceans, seas, lakes and even baths. Renato had never seen someone who refused to go to an aquarium as fierce as his little sister. She even used _blackmail_ to not to come too close to great amounts of water… they ended up going to a small indoor zoo that day.

And there, Renato found out about one of the other fears of his little sister.

"Rebooooooorn! Get me out of here!" Renata Sinclair, the girl that Renato Sinclair thought to be fearless not too long ago, screamed as she ran to her brother.

"What is wrong Renata?" Renato asked worried for he had never seen a human being run as fast as his younger sister just now. Not even when their mother chased them, she was as fast as she was now.

"S-s-spider!" The youngest Sinclair almost cried.

"Spider?" Renato echoed. "This is the spiders exhibition, of course there are spiders here…"

"G-get me out of here please!" Renata begged with hints of tears in her dark eyes.

"What is so scary about spiders?"

"Anything with more than six legs shouldn't exist in the world." Renata muttered while her brother led her out of the spiders section. Soon after this, Renato would find out that the more legs a living creature had, the more his younger sister was afraid of it. Let's say that the encounter with a Scolopendra gigantean, or better known as the Amazonian giant centipede, in another exhibition scared the girl enough to let her burst out in tears and hug her brother to death.

That day, a contend Serena Sinclair got a picture of a cutely pouting girl with tears running down her puffy red cheeks who was hugging her normally composed, but now truly baffled brother. No, the mother wasn't surprised to see her cute daughter like this for she knew her fear for water and any living being with more than six legs. In fact, she planned this entire trip to get pictures of her cute children in their most adorable moments.

Renatus Sinclair could only sigh at the sight of the antics of his family and wonder if his family was truly a normal family… probably not, but he wouldn't have wanted it any different.

He just hoped that teaching his daughter how to blackmail wouldn't backfire too much.

…**Imagine the first meeting between Zero and Lal's box animal… Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 18: headaches

"I hate paperwork." I complained while I worked through the enormous pile of documents that needed my signature. Even when that odd pressure of being watched has disappeared, the paperwork still hasn't… it actually became worse because someone managed to break into one of the labs and managed to get away!

Freezing in the middle of signing another document, _seriously Spanner? Did you really need to blow down the explosion-proof door in an attempt to catch the culprits?_, I feared for the worst when I heard a knock on my door.

"Zero-sama… we have a problem." Seth said softly as he walked in my room with a worried expression.

"A worse problem than someone getting in and out the Neo Estraneo base without being caught?" I asked hesitantly.

"Actually…" Seth began and I groaned in frustration, this tone couldn't mean anything good for me. Seth gave me an wry smile before he handed over the paper that he was holding. "It's a mail from Christiano…"

"From uncle Chris?" I wondered out loud before I read the printed message.

_Zero,_

_We've found out what they stole.  
They got some of the blueprints that Spanner managed to secure a while ago.  
Spanner suspects that they might go after the prototype that he made as well.  
A plan has been made, but code green.  
I repeat code green._

_Chris_

"Code green…" I sighed. "Of all things that could happen, code green." That we've been robbed is already bad and now Verde wants to 'visit' as well? This couldn't end up well. Knowing my Famiglia's almost self-destructive nature around the genius baby, the situation will become even worse than before. Especially when he _announces_ that he was going to visit soon. The last time he did that…

_No, I don't want to remember all the paperwork I had to do afterwards._

Code green was created soon after his first 'announced visit' and quickly became the most feared alarm of my Famiglia.

"I've already booked the flight to Italy. We will leave in two days." Seth stated.

"Thanks uncle Seth…"

…

"Hey Tsuna! Why are you looking so troubled?" Tsuna heard a familiar voice greet him.

"Hieee! Since whe- you know what? I don't care anymore." Tsuna sighed in defeat, knowing that he would probably never see the girl before she appears out of nowhere with that one exception. "And… I'm not on the lists?" He stated hesitantly. "Maybe I will have to repeat the grade…"

"What are you talking about Tsuna?" Zero frowned before she looked at the board. "Hmm… I am not on the list either?"

"What?! But you aced all your tests!" Tsuna exclaimed. He had been surprised when he saw the grades of the younger girl, but he should have expected that, knowing that she skipped various grades.

"Hmm… what are those flowers doing on the list?" Zero wondered out loud before she tugged at the said flowers. "Hey Tsuna! We are both in class 2-A. Both our names were covered by the flowers." She grinned.

"Wait really?"

"Kufufufu, yes. And Kyoko-san, Hana-san, Gokudera-san and Yamamoto-san are in the same class too!"

"That is great Zero!" Tsuna cheered, truly happy for the both of them. And then he felt it. A foreboding feeling that promised doom and pain. Or, most likely, a painful death.

"D-do you f-feel like s-someone is glaring at you too Zero?" Tsuna asked the short girl.

"Hmm? not really, in fact I feel like someone has _stopped_ watching me lately."

"Ciaossu Zero."

…

"Good morning Reborn-san." I greeted the hitman. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine, but you seem worried." Reborn stated.

"Well, we have some problems in Italy." I admitted. "Someone managed to steal some… possibly dangerous blueprints and we are trying to find out who did it and why…"

"What kind of blueprints did they steal?" Reborn frowned.

"Hmm… a robot capable of mass destruction?"

"Hieee? Mass destruction?" Tsuna asked horrified by the image of a giant robot destroying whole towns.

"The blueprints were found in an old military base and contained some information about a robot which is capable of mass destruction if fueled with dying will flames. But the original robots only drained the flames of the person who controlled the robot from inside… One of my Famiglia members managed to change the engine so it wouldn't have to use too many flames but then some of the older blueprints were stolen."

"Mass destruction?" Tsuna echoed.

"Mass destruction." I confirmed. "We plan to catch the culprits, but some… _complications_ showed up. So I'll have to go to Italy soon."

"When are you leaving?" Reborn asked in a dark tone.

"Tomorrow."

…

Patience, that was all what Reborn needed. Now he knew that Zero and Renata were the same person, he knew that he needed patience to confront the girl and to avoid a misunderstanding. But then Zero informed him about her need to go to Italy. Soon.

_Too soon._

_Tomorrow_, echoed a few times in Reborn's mind. He only had one day. Then she would be gone until who knows when. Reborn had one day before Zero would disappear to the base that even _he_ couldn't locate. One day before he couldn't confront her about the reincarnation matter.

He had a deadline now.

_One day._

"Is something wrong Reborn-san?" Zero asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"…Can I spea-" Reborn began, but he was interrupted by an obnoxious voice.

"Hey hey, Sawada-chan!" The voice shouted. "We're in the same class! It must be fate, let's work hard together!"

Reborn looked at the lowlife who interrupted him. A redheaded scrawny guy that he recognized as Naito Longchamp. The boss of an annoying long time enemy of the Vongola.

_Tomaso_.

…

_I wonder what Reborn was trying to say_, I thought when a scrawny redhead interrupted him.

"I will tell you later, when there are less people around." Reborn stated darkly before he disappeared in one of his secret passageways. "I will see you in class."

"Sure…" I muttered when he was gone and returned my attention to the still horrified Tsuna, who was being dragged away by the redhead.

…

"Good morning Juudaime! We're in the same class for year two. Though it is sad that the baseball-freak and the midget are in there too…" Gokudera beamed at his beloved boss. Yamamoto, who was right behind Gokudera, simply laughed and greeted Tsuna.

"Yo Tsuna."

"Good, your family members are here." The scrawny teen behind Tsuna grinned. "I can introduce myself now, I'm the Tomaso family's eight generation leader! Naito Longchamp!"

"So… you are the one who got our names covered with flowers?" A familiar voice asked.

"Hieee! How are you doing this Zero?!" Tsuna exclaimed when he noticed Zero suddenly standing next to him.

"Haha, where did you come from Zero-chan?" Yamamoto asked the girl and Gokudera frowned for he hadn't noticed the girl either.

"Kufufufu, you will find out eventually." Zero laughed mischievously. "Reborn-san has gone to our classroom already, by the way."

"And who are you?" The scrawny boy, Naito, smiled.

"I'm Zero." The albino girl introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you Zero-chan! Anyways, I will see you guys in class!" Naito smiled before he walked away with his… eccentric subordinates.

"Hey Zero?" Tsuna began when Naito was out of sight

"Yes Tsuna?"

"Why weren't you recognized as a mafia boss too?"

"Kufufufu, are you admitting that you are a mafia boss too, Tsuna?"

"W-what n-no!"

"Kufufufu, just kidding. And well, kufufufu, it isn't very well known who the boss of the Neo Estraneo Famiglia is." Zero chuckled. "In fact, only my own Famiglia members and our few allies know that I am the boss. If others knew that an eleven years old girl was the boss… well let's say that it wouldn't end well for my Famiglia."

"Hahahaha even though I'm still confused, it seems like this class will be interesting." Yamamoto grinned.

"With this many mafia members in one classroom… it would be a miracle if it wouldn't be interesting." Zero agreed.

…

_I was right_, I chuckled softly as Naito, a man who was definitely way too old to be in a middle school if he isn't a teacher, Gokudera and Tsuna stood in front of the class. Reborn hijacked the lesson and started a small competition between Gokudera and the old man in the middle school uniform, which of course meant that Longchamp and Tsuna were dragged along…

Or at least Tsuna was dragged along.

I waved at Tsuna, who was giving me a slightly betrayed look, as a sign that I would vote for him. He would be a fine leader if you asked me. he was already showing compassion and loyalty to his friends. He is accepting like the sky and-

"I nominate Zero." Hana said as she raised her hand. Yes, I would have nominated Tsuna too- wait… _me?_ I looked at the taller girl in disbelieve. Hana saw my shocked expression and chuckled as she walked to the others in the front of the class.

"Then come and stand in the front too, Estraneo-san." Reborn smirked. I slowly stood up from my seat and walked to the front of the class. Feeling every stare that my classmates gave me burning on my back.

"Why me?" I whispered to Hana when I was standing in front of her.

"Better you than those monkeys." Hana shrugged. "And because you spend more time with those monkeys then with Kyoko and me."

"…" I sighed as I felt a small headache coming up.

Suddenly the door opened and a rather big… girl was standing there… it was a girl right?

"This is my girlfriend!" Longchamp laughed. I looked at the… _couple_ in disbelieve, _how in hell did they get together?_ Is this even humanly possible? Wait, he is in the mafia right? Does she knows that? …I blocked all the sound and rubbed my head as I felt the headache worsen.

"Estraneo Zero, congratulations Estraneo-san." Reborn announced.

"Wait, what?!" I asked lamely. I spaced out for a second.

"You are the new class president Zero." Hana kindly informed me. I gave the older girl a blank stare and sighed again.

"Great, more headaches…"

…

"Ciaossu Zero, can I speak-" Reborn asked after class, but before he could finish his question, Zero was whisked away by a certain Naito Longchamp.

"Tch." Reborn scowled before he disappeared into another secret passageway.

…

"Hey hey, Zero-chan why didn't you tell me that you were from a mafia Famiglia too?" Naito asked me while dragging me to where Tsuna was standing.

"Hmm… what are you talking about Naito-san?" I asked in an attempt to stay unknown as a mafia boss. I don't want my Famiglia to get into more trouble than they already are… and I heard rumors that the Tomaso are really annoying.

"The substitute teacher called you, Estraneo-san. You are a part of the Estraneo Famiglia right?"

"_Neo_ Estraneo." I corrected automatically and I mentally scolded myself. So much for staying unknown.

"I knew it! You're a fellow mafia member!" Naito grinned. I sighed in relieve when I realized that he hasn't realized that I was the boss yet… and then my relieve was crushed with one sentence that Naito said just a second later.

"Anyways, let's join a club together!" Naito grinned. I blinked blankly and looked at Tsuna who gave me an apologetic look and shook his head to confirm that we couldn't escape. The small gesture shook me out of my stupor and I shook my head as well. If I went along with Naito the risk of being revealed as a boss would be greater…

_And Naito is getting on my nerves already, even though it has been less than five minutes._

Deciding that it would be way too troublesome to be dragged along with this boy, I returned an apologetic look to Tsuna before I used my flames to disappear into nothing. The shocked expression on Tsuna's face when I became invisible was almost worth the trouble of the explanations about illusions I will have to go through after Naito noticed that I was gone.

Almost.

Believe me, the Tomaso were more annoying than the rumors state that they are.

"Hey Zero-chan!" Naito waved during lunch when he somehow managed to spot me. _They are more persistent as well._

"Ciaossu Zer-" Reborn greeted when he appeared out of nowhere.

"Sorry, no time to spare Reborn-san." I stated before I used illusions to disappear again.

…

_I'm going to kill them_, Reborn thought frustrated when Zero disappeared without a trace. He had been patient for the whole day already and all he managed to say was 'ciaossu'. And to say the truth… he was staring to get really, _really_ pissed off.

There were things that he had to say, things he had to do. And the Tomaso were _always_ interrupted him when he attempted to talk to Zero. He had a deadline damn it!

So it was decided. He was going to eradicate Tomaso.

…After confronting Zero of course.

…

After disappearing and running away from a crazy mafia boss several times, I encountered a bloodthirsty skylark who was dragging a half-dead body with him.

"Hn."

"I have a good reason to run in the halls Hibari-san." I stated as I stopped running. Hibari raised an eyebrow as he waited impatiently for my reason. "I'm chased by a madman… who wants me to crowd with him?"

"Still not a reason to break the rules, rabbit."

"Alright then, I'll make sure that I'm invisible the next time I decide to run past you." I sighed. "What are you doing with… that?" I asked while eyeing the half-dead body suspiciously.

"Hn."

"Hmm… disposing it you say?" I sweatdropped. "Well, be sure to hide the body then."

…

"The desolation bullet again!" Tsuna exclaimed when Shamal suddenly stripped and started to talk about depressing stuff.

"Not only I'm banished because I cheated on 2062 women, including the queen, even my best friend threw me out of his house and banished me form that building after I healed him from a serious food-poisoning… LIFE IS SO LONELY!" He cried. Tsuna stared at the older man and wisely decided to run away before he was forced to listen to more depressing stuff and accidentally agrees on becoming a nurse.

_Things are getting weirder and weirder today_, Tsuna though while he ran. First a mafia boss appears and then another kind of impossible bullets appears. And if that isn't weird enough, Zero was able to disappear into nothing. _Nothing!_ She had a lot of explaining to do when Tsuna saw her again.

Because of his thoughts, he wasn't sure about how long he was running but he stopped in his tracks when he saw two people talking… with one of them having an almost dead body at their feet.

"Well, be sure to hide the body then." The smaller of the two sighed. And then everything went blank.

…

"Ciaossu Zero."

"Hello Reborn-san" Zero greeted. "Don't worry about Tsuna, he just fainted."

"…" Reborn looked at the pathetic sight of an unconscious mafia heir on the infirmary bed and sighed in disappointment. He decided to tutor him a bit more the next time… but first.

"Zero, can I speak with you?"

"Hmm? Su-"

"Hey hey, how is Sawada-chan doing?" Naito interrupted. Reborn glared at the approaching teen and ordered Leon to turn into a gun. It was time to eradicate a headache.

"Reborn-san, do you mind if we talk somewhere else? We can't talk privately here…" Zero whispered when she saw Naito approaching too. She didn't even wait for an answer as she grabbed the small hitman and used her flames to disappear.

…

Reborn blinked a few times as he saw the scenery change slowly in front of his eyes. The organized infirmary was replaced by the raw beauty of a very familiar cliff. The deep abyss, the waves crashing on the sharp rocks and even the orange hue of the sunset was exactly like the first time that Renata showed him this place in her illusions..

He chuckled when he remembered the tone that Renata, his baby sister, used when she told him how she named this scene…'the cliff'. _Seriously, even mother had a better naming sense and she gave both her children almost the same name as her husband._

"A-are you alright?" Zero asked concerned. Reborn snapped out of his memories and felt the single tear on his cheek. He frowned as he moved his hand to wipe the offending drop away and stared at his wet fingers afterwards. _This is the first time_, he mused. The first time that he shed a tear since his sister's death… no, the first time since he couldn't safe her from her death all those years ago.

The reincarnation of his sister looked at him with an expression which was so different from the one of almost sixteen years ago and yet exactly the same. The same worry, mixed with panic, confusion and a hint of curiosity, just on a different face.

"…It was here." Reborn finally began after staring at the familiar expression for a little longer. "Did you know Renata? After your death I tried to find this place. It was silly, really, to chase after an illusion, but you know what? I actually found it."

"…What are you talking about Reborn-san?" Zero asked, clearly confused by his words. Reborn watched the confusion slowly turn into shock, then realization and then disbelieve. It was now or never.

"I know it, Zero. Please, _please_ don't try to deny it. I know that you are Renata. I know that you are my little sister." The hitman stated softly.

…

"Sorry for dragging you into an illusion Reborn-san, but at least we can talk without interruptions here." I stated as I put the hitman down. _Something is wrong_, I thought when Reborn didn't answer. I walked around the hitman so I could see his face and I froze in my tracks. Did I think that something was wrong? Then scratch that. _Something is horribly, terribly wrong, _I decided when I saw the single tear on Reborn's face.

"A-are you alright?" I asked with worry, panic, confusion and a tad of curiosity. Reborn blinked blankly before he moved his hand to his cheek to wipe the tear away as if he just realized that it was there. He blinked once more before he turned his attention to me, his dark familiar eyes meeting my pale purple ones. The normally composed expression was now filled with melancholy, hope and a tiniest hint of guilt.

And it freaked me out.

"…It was here." Reborn finally began after a long moment of silence that almost managed to give me a mental breakdown. "Did you know Renata? After your death I tried to find this place. It was silly, really, to chase after an illusion, but you know what? I actually found it."

"…What are you talking about Reborn-san?" I asked confused as my brains recovered from the mental strai- _Did he just call me Renata?_ I blinked blankly and stared at the serious face of Reborn. _Renata?_ He did call me that, didn't he? Did brother talk about me befo- No wait, how did he make the connection between Renata and me? Could it be…

"I know it, Zero. Please, _please_ don't try to deny it. I know that you are Renata. I know that you are my little sister." The hitman stated softly in a tone that made tears appear in my eyes.

He knew. Even though I mentioned my past life out loud. Even though I decided to stick with my personal rule to never mention a past life to others. Even though I never met the son of my brother- No, did he just call me his little sister? His little sister that… died…

I looked into the eyes of the baby hitman. No, into the eyes of the hitman. I could hit myself when the realization dawned on me, there was no way that two different people could be so alike as me and Renata or Reborn and Renato. Simply no way, unless they are the same person.

"Renato…" I whispered, completely forgetting about my personal rule. No, who cares about that now? What do I tell him? What do I tell my older brother? I looked through my memories of my past life and tried to find out what to say…

"You still owe me money." I suddenly blurted out. Reborn gave me a deadpan look and I blushed in embarrassment. That wasn't what I was trying to say. "I meant I-I… Hmm…"

"Typically." Reborn sighed, both sarcastic and amused at the same time as he walked closer to me. "I missed you too." …That was when I scooped my brother up and hugged the hell out of him.

"I-I missed you." I whispered hoarsely, finally finding the words that I was looking for.

"I missed you too, Renata. We have a lot of catching up to do…"

…

"How?" I asked as I watched the last rays of the sun disappear into the sea.

"I'm cursed." Reborn answered, guessing the silent part of my question.

"A curse that turns you into a baby?"

"All the arcobaleno are like this…"

"…Then…"

"Yes, that mad scientist as well. You can meet the other arcobaleno soon, if you come to Mafia Land with me." Reborn smirked.

"Kufufufu, you expect me to go to a resort which isn't only surrounded by water, but which also uses water in their attractions?" I chuckled. "And I have to take care of my Famiglia as well, Renato."

"When are you returning?"

"When the case is closed, I guess…"

"You really love your Famiglia, don't you?"

"They are like the family that I didn't have in this life… But I'm glad that you found me." I confessed. Even though I indeed love my Famiglia, they are more like friends than family with the exception of Chris and Seth. Reborn smiled proudly and looked up at the stars in the night sky.

"…Never do that again." Reborn stated after a comfortable moment of silence.

"Kufufufu, you mean hugging you-"

"Not that!" Reborn interrupted me as he pulled his fedora over his eyes. "I meant being reckless and get yourself killed! I just… don't want to lose you again."

"…I will keep that in mind, brother." I smiled.

"…Now, let go of this illusion so I can kill the headache of a Tomaso."

…

**Omake: recruiting**

"…Didn't you tell me about someone who is talented in illusions, Zero?" Reborn asked me. I looked at my babyfied brother and smiled fondly as I remembered the young Mukuro.

"Yes, Muku-chan was quite skilled and I know that he is even better than almost six years ago even though I haven't seen him since back then..."

"…Tell me when you have found him." Reborn nodded.

"…Don't tell me that you're going to recruit Muku-chan as the mist guardian for Tsuna." I deadpanned.

"If he is as skilled as you implied…"

"Let me guess then… Gokudera-san is the storm guardian, Yamamoto-san is the rain guardian, Ryohei nii-san is the sun guardian, Hibari-san is the cloud guardian… and Lambo-kun is the lightening guardian." I sighed.

"How did you know?"

"Just a guess." I muttered.

_Why the hell is Renato trying to create a second first generation?_

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I'm still as busy as before, but this chapter was finished and I had to publish it before I could start to rewrite this chapter again. Really, this chapter was difficult to write so I hope that it turned out well... That 'you owe me money' actually happened to me before with my mother when I returned home after two weeks… Anyways, I decided to combine two chapters and to skip the part with Mafia Land, so next chapter will be a more original chapter. I wonder if anyone can guess what is going to happen…  
Ahem, and now… thank you all for reviewing and favoriting this story! I mean 108 favs! More than a 100! I think that you know what this means…**

**Omake 2: ****the daily life of the Sinclair's part 6**

"Thank you for the information." A thirteen years old Renato thanked one of his bug-spies. Even though he was reluctant in the beginning, learning the bugs-language from his father has proven to be quite useful in the end. Not only because he loved those six legged creatures, but also because of the useful information that they could provide.

That was why he was, secretly, pretty upset when one of the beetles told him that a demon has been spotted which killed a lot of the neighborhood bugs. Renato sighed and tried to remember what the beetle told him so he could get rid of the demon.

He remembered being told about something about silver skin and demonic green eyes that could see in the dark, effectively finding even the smallest bug to kill…

Renato sighed again when he realized that a creature like that couldn't possibly exist and he left the backyard.

"Welcome back, Renato." Serena smiled when her son entered the house. "Have you gotten some good information?"

"Not really." Renato answered. "Just that a demon has been killing bugs in the neighborhood."

"That sounds… serious." Serena frowned. "Maybe you should ask your father about it."

"Sure." Renato responded before he left the living room for the garage where his father was currently working in.

"Father?"

"Ah, good morning Renato."

"It's evening already…"

"Ah, really?" Renatus laughed sheepishly. "Anyways, what is wrong son?"

"According to the bugs, a demon has appeared."

"A demon?"

"Yes, it has been killing bugs in the neighborhood lately."

"How does it look like?" Renatus asked, leaving his work for what it is. Sure, he loved his work but bugs are one of his priorities because he loved them as much as his daughter loved good hot chocolate.

"It ha-"

"KYAAAAAAAAAAA!" Serena's scream interrupted him. Both Renato and Renatus looked in the direction of the scream and ran to their mother/wife at the same time, wondering what was able to scare the hitwoman as much as this.

""What is wrong Mother/Serena?!"" they both shouted when they entered the living room. Serena was standing on the couch and pointed a yellow slipper at the small brown spot on the floor.

"K-kill it!" She shouted. Both the father and son looked at the small creature and got shivers to their spines.

""Hell no."" They stated at the same time. Not because they loved bugs, no that _thing_ wasn't worthy of being called a bug, but because that _thing_ was _an emissary from hell_. And then it started to spread its wings and started to fly slowly to their direction.

"Oh hell no." Renato stated as he joined his mother on the couch, leaving his father frozen in disgust. "Why don't you kill it with your knives mother?!"

"You think that I want to soil my weapons on that _thing_?! Hell no, why don't you shoot it or something?!"

"That _thing_?! No thank you mother, _you_ are the number one hitwoman in the world here! Why don't _you_ kill it?!"

"Dear, run away!" Serena shouted when she noticed the emissary from hell reaching her frozen husband.

"NYAAAAA!" sounded gleefully. Renato blinked in surprise when a silver blur passed his father and pounced on the emissary from hell.

"…What is going on here?" Renata asked when she entered the room. The girl had never seen her family act like this in the four years of her current life… but then she saw what scared her family.

"Nya?"

"Well done Chris, another cockroach exterminated. I think that most of them are gone now." Renata chuckled at the grey cat. That was when the Sinclair family got another member and Renata learned that even the most dangerous persons in the world have their own fears.

**This actually happened to me when I visited my family once… I'm forever grateful for my uncle who saved us from that… **_**creature**_**.****  
Oh, and ddmahan922? Reborn indeed has a picture book hidden somewhere. Some of the pictures could be used as blackmail material so he hides them, but believe me… he does have one. And so did Renata (Zero knows where it is, but Reborn doesn't even know of its existence).  
Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 19: thieves and kidnappers

_I don't understand how this could have happened_, I sighed as I looked at the unbelievable scene of my kidnappers arguing with each other… with the reason of the whole situation being me.

"VOOOOOOI we have to return the fish!"

And the oddest thing is, that they didn't realize that they _kidnapped_ me…

…

_Flashback_

"The preparations are done now boss." Dimitri smiled. I looked up from the crowd of humans to the forced smile on the face of the naturally pale man. "Are you ready for counterplan green?"

"Kufufufu, as ready as I can be…" I chuckled nervously. No matter how long that we've planned to stop Verde, our strategies and his mad attempts to use our inventions as a test dummy for his inventions are extremely dangerous. Especially now we have _normal_ robot fanatics attending the 'event'… Normal as in civilian-normal! And we had to catch the thieves as well!

The plan initially didn't include civilians, _only_ the members of the Neo Estraneo in disguise were to attend the fake robot convent in Milan. But then we couldn't get the thieves to take the bait… that and somehow a small crowd of robot fanatics managed to slip through the security… and managed to fool my disguised Famiglia members long enough until it was already too late.

"Please remind me to increase the security the next time that we are going to lay a trap for thieves… and that we have to be able to recognize each other in our disguises." I grumbled. It seemed that no one could recognize each other because of our disguises even though they were just casual clothes. Maybe the inventors and scientists are too used to see each other in their working attire.

I was wearing purple shorts and a white T-shirt with images of little clown fishes on it. To complete my 'disguise' I wore a light purple fedora with cat ears to hide most of my hair and fake glasses that Spanner somehow convinced me to wear as well. I pushed my fake glasses up and looked through the small crowd for a certain green haired baby.

"Boss, target green has entered the building." Dimitri warned me.

"Thank you Dimitri. Tell the others to prepare for the worst." I nodded before I walked to the fake Gola Mosca, the robot of which the designs were stolen. It was most likely that Verde was going after this robot because it was supposed to be the most destructive one in the event, however this was a fake to catch the thieves, so we had to protect it from the arcobaleno.

"Aww look at this little girl!" someone cooed at me when I almost reached my post. I looked up at the… very suspicious man with a green Mohawk, sunglasses and a jacket rimmed with red feathers… _A boa in this heat?_

"Leave the little girl alone Lussaria, we aren't here to pick up little girls." Another suspicious guy complained. This one had weird piercings and the same weird jacket as the other man, just without the feathers… but with umbrellas strapped on his back. _Why is he carrying umbrellas even though it is sunny outside?_

"Aw, come on Levi. Just look at those cute eyes and that hair! Little girl, are you perhaps related to Squalo?" the man called Lussaria asked me.

"Hmm… my parents told me to avoid talking to strangers." I sweatdropped. I had to go to the fake Gola Mosca soon, or Verde was going to-

**BOOOOOM**

…_too late_, I sighed. I looked at the fake Mosca and noticed that Verde already activated the trap that effectively glued him to the ceiling…

_I should get the innocent robot-lovers out of here._

"Misters, you shou-"

"Oh no, we have to get you out of here!" Lussaria declared as he picked me up and ran away with me before I even got the chance to finish my sentence.

"Oi! Leave the girl behind Lussaria!" Levi shouted as I watched my fedora on the floor becoming smaller and smaller in the growing distance.

_What have I gotten into this time?_

…

And that was how I ended up in a high class hotel somewhere in Milan. And then I found out that they were a part of the mafia as well…

…

_Flashback_

"Here you go little girl, you are safe here." Lussaria smiled as he put me down.

"Oi Lussaria! I told you to leave the girl!" Levi shouted. "Now she knows where we are residing!"

"Hmm misters?" I began hesitantly.

"Yes little girl?" Lussaria asked in a friendly tone.

"Could you please return me-"

"Ushishishi, do we have a hostage now?" someone laughed. I looked past Lussaria and spotted a blonde teen with hair that covered his eyes and a tiara. I mentally noted that he was wearing the same kind of jacket as the others as well, could it be an uniform? Maybe cosplay?

The tiara _does_ look like a cosplay accessory and that hairstyle reminded me of a character from KatekYoshi Hitmen Rebirth… princess Beelzebub if I recalled it right. But wasn't this hotel a bit too luxurious for simple cosplayers? _I mean, why does this room have a chandelier hanging on the ceiling?! _Rich cosplayers then? Or maybe they are a successful travelling theatre group or something like that…

"Meet our little guest Bel-chan." Lussaria smiled. "We saved her from an invention that exploded for no reason."

"VOOOI you can't simply take an civilian to this place!" A man with long white hair and the same jacket as the other occupants of the room shouted. I sighed, both in relieve and in annoyance. Relieve because at least someone had common sense here, except for the hair maybe, and annoyance because the man was as loud as Ryohei and, more often than not, Gokudera… now I think about it, all three of them have white hair…

Would I end up like that as well, since I shared the hair color as well?

…_I hope not._

"Here you are Squa-chan! Here little girl, are you related to this man?"

"Hmm?"

"Muu, Squalo is from a mafia family so a civilian like her can't be related to him." A hooded person stated as they entered the room. I frowned when I realized that this person used mist flames to disguise themselves… _They are quite skilled, I should be careful with illusions then…_

…Wait did they just say… mafia? So they aren't a travelling theatre group? That means that I've been kidnapped… again… by a mafia Famiglia this time… _damn it._

"I told you to leave the girl behind!" Levi grumbled.

"Ushishishi, this girl knows too much now. We'll have to kill her." Bel, or something like that, grinned.

_Damn it, I can't die yet_… not now I've found Renato… or now he found me. And I still have to find the ever untraceable Mukuro! Ok Zero, time to play innocent.

"Are you guys part of a travelling theatre group?" I flower-smiled. Everyone in the room looked stunned in my direction like I said something wrong. A moment of silence passed by, until Lussaria suddenly squealed and hugged me.

"Can't we just keep this little girl? She is too adorable to be returned to that dangerous place!"

"VOOOI let go of the brat!"

"Ushishishi, what is your name peasant?"

"…Nemo." I stated with a blank face when Lussaria put me down. Nemo wasn't my favorite name, but there was a chance that they would recognize the names of my former life's and my current one… _and I'm bad with names._ Levi looked at my shirt and sighed.

"…What an unfortunate name." He muttered sympathetically.

…

And then was when the chaos began…

…

_Flashback_

"Why do you think that we are a travelling theatre group?" the illusionist asked me. I tilted my head innocently and blinked confused.

"You aren't?" I asked with fake disappointment.

"I didn't say that, I just wanted to know why you thought that."

"Kufufufu, because you are wearing costumes for a play right?" I chuckled. I realized that the uniform could mean that they were part of an organization or an assassination squad or maybe something even worse than that, so I'd better keep on acting innocent. I couldn't die yet, especially now I've promised Renato … he would chase me in the cycle of rebirth to personally bring me back if I did die…_ I should watch out when I'm reborn again_.

The illusionist nodded slowly and walked closer while I was still distracted by my thoughts.

"But now I think about it, you kind of look like the heir of the Gesso Famiglia." They muttered as they pulled my fake glasses off.

"Gesso?" Levi repeated. He came closer to me as well and squatted to observe my face closely. "Mammon is right, she does look like that guy."

"Ushishishi, so we _do_ have a hostage here."

"VOI are you part of the Gesso Famiglia?" The long haired man asked.

"…Hmm… I do have a family if that is what you are asking…" I frowned in half-fake confusion. _Who or what is Gesso?_ "But my name isn't Nemo Gesso."

"What is your last name then little Nemo?" Lussaria asked. I blinked calmly and panicked behind my calm façade. What is my last name indeed… Do I know anyone who wasn't a part of the mafia? But I don't want to involve Hana, Kyoko, Haru… or Nagi! Or any Nanimori citizen for that matter! _Isn't there anyone I know who isn't a part from the mafia and who is able to defend themselves?_

…wait.

…but…

…Isn't there another option?

…Damn it.

"Nemo… Hibari." I answered, praying that Hibari will never find out about this or that he won't bite me to death when he finds out about me borrowing his name. "My name is Nemo Hibari."

"Nice to meet you Nemo Hibari." Lussaria smiled.

"VOOI she isn't part of the Gesso Famiglia then!" Squalo declared loudly.

"Then she is useless." Bel pouted. "Can we kill the peasant already?"

"No we can't." Lussaria complained. "We won't kill this cutie as long as she isn't a target."

"She knows too much now, Lussaria, that is why I told you to leave her at the convention." Levi sighed, but he was ignored.

"The prince says that we have to kill her." Bel stated. I panicked when the teen approached me with a knife that appeared out of nowhere. If I wanted to survive…_ then I have to play along._

"Cool!" I flower-smiled. "So if you are a prince, can I be a princess?" Bel stopped in his tracks and tilted his head.

"Princess?"

"Kufufufu, yep." I chuckled. _I can't believe that I'm saying this even though I've lived so many times already…_

"Ushishishi, I like this fish. We can keep her." Bel declared and his knife disappeared. I sweatdropped inwardly when I saw his change of mind, could it be that he was an idiot? Maybe just simpleminded… or bipolar. _And did he just call me fish?_

"What about killing her Belphegor?" Levi asked.

"Ushishishi, the prince gets what he wants."

"Does that mean that we can keep her?" Lussaria asked hopeful.

"I'm not going to pay for her living expenses."

"VOOOOOOI we have to return the fish!"

…

_And now we're back to the present,_ I sighed.

Well, at least they aren't paying attention to me now… so maybe I can escape. I looked at the now distracted illusionist and hoped that they weren't able to sense me when I use my flames.

I walked slowly to the forgotten glasses on the floor and put them back on before I formed an illusion of myself in the room and made myself invisible. _Mist flames are so convenient if you are kidnapped_, I mused as I left the room. Otherwise I had to use that poor excuse that Renato and I were taught by our mother to use when we were kidnapped for information…

_No mom, being hit by a piece of cheese does _not_ cause memory loss._

I encountered a maid in the hall, but because I was still hidden in illusions I could pass her without trouble. Chuckling, I let the illusion around me change to make me look like the maid that passed me, just for the thrill. I had to let out some steam after stressfully preparing for both the thieves and Verde after all.

When I almost reached the elevator at the end of the hall, which seemed way too expensive by the way, one of the doors to the rooms suddenly flew away. Luckily enough I was not too close to the door, so I wasn't hit.

Somehow I wasn't even surprised of the sound because of I was already used to explosions in our base, which was actually kind of sad, but I _was_ surprised by the amount of flames that was used to blow the door away.

I quietly approached the door, which was completely destroyed by the time that I reached it, and noticed remnants of an interesting mix of sky and storm flames on the charred door. Flames of wrath, the kind of flames that Ricardo used.

"What are you doing trash?" an angry voice asked. I slowly turned around to the room which was doorless now and smiled a fake but polite smile.

"Just passing by." I answered politely before I walked away as fast as I could, inwardly wondering why the man in the room reminded me so much of Giotto's cousin and yet at the same time not at all.

"Oi trash! Bring back some alcohol!" He shouted after me. I winched at the volume and looked back in the direction I came from. As I feared, the door to the room that I just escaped opened and the illusionist peeked through the opened door. I quickly turned around and practically seen ran to the elevator. When the metal doors opened, I noticed that Mammon was looking straight at me before they looked back into the room and then back at me.

"Illusionist." Mammon muttered when the illusionist made the connection between the maid in the elevator and the girl in the room.

_Damn it, they found out_…

…

"I… never expected the glue to be this strong." Joseph chuckled as he tried to remove the glue in Verde's hair.

"Hey, be careful." Verde growled when he felt some strands of hair being pulled out.

"Right, right."

"You shouldn't have tried to do something weird to that robot, damned baby!" Chris smirked.

"Experimenting isn't 'something weird'." Verde argued. "Zero would have agreed with me! Now I think about it… where is she?"

"Zero-sama?!" Joseph called, but he got no answer from the girl. "How weird… does anyone know where she is?"

"I last saw her before the explosion, she was going to her post." Dimitri answered between the whispers of the mafia members.

"Zero wouldn't leave something as important as this." Chris frowned.

"Chrisiano! We found her hat!" someone in the small crowd of mafia members shouted. The grey haired man looked at the purple object that was being waved above the heads of the crowd and feared for the worst.

"She wouldn't have been… kidnapped or something, right?" He asked hesitantly. At this, various Neo Estraneo members started murmur in worry. Their boss was able to take care of herself, but she was still an eleven years old girl who was all alone in Milan. Who knows what could happen to her?

"We can track Nemo, right?" Spanner asked. "I mean, I installed a tracking device in her glasses. I wanted to install a camera as well, but I couldn't decide on which kind- time to get working on project 'finding Nemo', I guess." Spanner said when he noticed the odd stares that he received.

"Youngsters these days… do not have any respect for privacy." Verde sighed as Spanner started to work on his laptop.

"Like you can talk." Chris muttered.

Spanner frowned at something that he saw on the screen of his laptop and turned to the worried people.

"You'll never guess where she is…"

…

_Why is everyone in the mafia so persistent?_ I scowled as I used my flames to disappear again. Even though I had a small lead in the beginning because of a very convenient 'malfunction' of the elevators, my kidnappers were starting to catch up with me. I was lucky that I had my illusions to create distractions and disguises, or they would have captured me already.

"VOOOOOOI come back stupid fish!" the long haired man shouted as he chased after an illusion. I panted slightly and stopped running to catch my breath, but the illusionist somehow noticed me so I used my flames to make me invisible again and ran further.

"Sorry." I muttered to the man who literally fainted when I suddenly became visible again, right in front of him. I looked around in the dark alleyway and sighed in relieve when no kidnapper was in sight.

"She went here." I heard Mammon say in the distance. I looked panicked at the fainted man and noticed the small badge on his clothes…

_This could work out somehow._

…

"We are looking for a young girl around ten years old, with white hair and purple eyes." Mammon stated. "Tell us where she is, I know that she entered this shady place."

"…Sir, anyone who is younger than eighteen is not allowed in a bar." I said politely while I was practically smirking proudly inwardly. The illusionist didn't seem to notice that the man they were talking to was the person they were looking for.

"I'm older than eighteen." Mammon scowled.

"But he isn't." I nodded at Belphegor.

"A prince goes wherever he wants to be." The blonde grinned.

"The girl you're looking for is too young too-"

"Excuse us!" a familiar voice sounded from the door. "We are looking for a young girl with white hair and purple eyes." I looked at Chris and Seth who entered the bar and smiled politely at the men.

"Welcome to Quindecim." I greeted them. I somehow needed to tell them that I was right here, but I couldn't because of the other two… _however, I can drop some hints._

"You are looking for her too?" Mammon asked.

"You are looking for her too?" Chris echoed.

"Excuse me misters, but we are not allowed to give information about our customers. However, I can lend you my assistance if you can win game from me." I stated, effectively catching the attention of the four in the room.

"What kind of game?" Seth asked.

"Kufufufu, poker." I answered. Chris and Seth eyed me suspiciously when they heard that and I winked at the men. Their suspicion melted into relieve when they realized that it was me, but that relieve quickly changed into horror when they realized that it was me they had to play against.

"P-poker?" Chris asked. I nodded in response and took a deck of cards that was conveniently on the bar counter in my hands.

"Poker." I confirmed as I opened the box.

"Why would you help us if we play a game with you?" Mammon asked suspiciously when I started shuffling the cards.

"Look around." I said as I nodded to the empty bar. "I've been bored for quite a while without customers… and I will only assist you when you actually win."

"Ushishishi, if it is a game of investing, Mammon won't lose." Belphegor snickered, earning two horrified looks from my uncles and a smirk from me.

_Challenge accepted._

…

"I can't believe that you managed to get in a bar of all places, Zero." Chris sighed when we made our way back to the convention.

"I still can't believe that you actually won that game, Zero-sama." Seth sighed, remembering the heated game of bluffs, lies and deceit.

"Kufufufu, that illusionist was the best player I've played against in years." I laughed cheerfully. "It was fun." Chris and Seth looked at each other and sighed in defeat.

"Just… don't get kidnapped again, Zero-sama." Seth smiled wryly.

"They caught me off guards!" I pouted. "It's not _that_ easy to kidnap me…"

"And don't challenge your kidnappers to a game." Chris continued.

"…Kufufufu, I can't promise anything." I chuckled. "And did we catch the thieves in the end?"

"Sadly enough, we didn't" Chris sighed. "But we _did_ catch Verde and I got pictures of that… which would be useful in the near future."

"What do you mean, uncle Chris?" I asked.

"…Just read this mail Zero-sama." Seth smiled as he gave me a printed message. I carefully took the piece of paper and immediately dropped it in surprise when I read the contents.

_Brother is getting married._

…

**Omake: after it all**

The man groaned as he woke up. He blinked a few times in confusion as he stared at the night sky and jolted up when he remembered what happened to him. He looked around in the dark alleyway and tried to breath normally… but failed to.

He remembered going outside to smoke before opening the bar like he was supposed to do, but before he could light his cigarette up something appeared in front of him.

It was mostly white and almost glowing in the shadows of the alleyway… most definitely a ghost.

The man chuckled nervously and shook his head. Maybe he was just hallucinating, _ghosts do not exist_… right? Then he noticed the note that was clenched in his fists that definitely wasn't there before.

_Thank you and sorry  
Z.E._

And the man fainted again… _ghosts do exist after all._

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Did anyone predict what was going to happen and which blueprints were stolen? I thought I made it quite clear… but that could be my imagination. I personally believe that anyone who was frozen for years would need at least a few months before they are able to move normally again… so that is why Xanxus is unfrozen now, the Kukuyo arc is nearing after all.  
I am seriously considering clown fishes as Zero's box weapons right now, imagine Spanner when Zero wants to call it Nemo while his nickname for Zero is Nemo kufufufu. Or a skylark! Imagine Reborn's reaction when he hears that she **_**borrowed**_** Hibari's name and sees that her box animal is a skylark of all things… Does anyone have a suggestion (or more) for box animals for Zero?  
And 153 follows? You guys flatter me too much :D… alright, here is another one…**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 7**

Normally, Renato attended a special middle school on Mondays to Fridays, the school was founded to teach children of mafia or assassin families and required the children to stay at the dorms. That was why Renato could only stay at his own home in the weekends and why he missed most of the daily life of his little sister, but not all of it. Definitely not all of it. They had doting parents after all and the bug-spies were very useful for relaying information.

But now his sister was four, she attended an elementary school connected to the very same school that he attended so he could spend more time with her without that damned cat. Really, apart from killing hell spawns the feline had no other use than stealing the attention of his little sister from him…

Anyways, now Renato and Renata were attending the same school, Renato would pick her up on Fridays to go to their home together. Which is why the thirteen years old was walking through the corridors of the first years, expecting to see Renata patiently waiting for him… however he didn't expect what he saw just around the corner.

"You should be ashamed of your family." A four years old boy sneered at his younger sister. The said sister had her back turned to Renato, however he could feel the anger radiating from her small body… or was it his own? He wasn't too sure about that.

"And why should I?" Renata asked with a calm voice, all the usual warmth gone. The young boy blinked blankly at the girl before he smirked, not noticing the dark aura of anger that came from a certain someone who was spying on them.

"I have never heard of the Sinclair Famiglia, which means that your Famiglia is a lowlife Famiglia that unlike mine is idiotically weak." The boy began and Renato almost punched the wall he was hiding behind in his anger to see his little sister being bullied. "I can only guess that you were able to attend this school because of your useless brains and cute looks."

"What?" Renato muttered as he looked incredulously at the younger boy. Did he really hear what he thought that the boy said?

"Of course you have never heard of the Sinclair Famiglia." Renata chirped in a fake cheerful tone. "Carcassa Famiglia right? Sure, I've heard of that Famiglia… but compared to Famiglia's like, let's say, the Vongola it is nothing. And you know what? My father has many connections in the Vongola, he even knows the Vongola Ottava personally. He sells weapons to her, you know? And mother has connections within the Vongola too… have you ever heard of 'Lo spaventapasseri'?"

"The Scarecrow? Heh, I thought that someone as smart as you would have heard of the best hitman in the world, but it seems that you were stupider than I thought. That means that you are only cute." the boy scoffed and Renato narrowed his eyes.

_Oh hell no._

"Hmm, I _do_ know her. Of course I know my own mother." The girl smiled 'innocently'. "And I don't have to add that my brother is being trained by her, he is the best brother I could wish for you know? So I would _appreciate_ it if you wouldn't badmouth my family…" The boy that was bullying the girl just seconds ago, paled when he realized what she said.

"W-wha-"

"Renata, it is time to go home." Renato stated calmly when he decided to reveal himself. "Go and retrieve your bag."

"Kufufufu, sure brother." The raven haired girl laughed before she hurried back into her classroom. The elder brother waited until his sister was out of sight before he turned his attention to the four years old boy.

"That is not how you confess." He deadpanned. "And if you want to date her_, you have to go through _me_ first_."

When he walked Renata back home, he couldn't explain the smile on his face that was both joyful and, strangely enough, threatening. Being an elder brother is difficult…

But definitely worth the trouble.

**I will leave the identity and fate of the boy to your imagination…  
****Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 20: back in Nanimori

"HIS ARM CAME OFF!" I heard Tsuna scream as soon as I entered the small church.

"Oh my, Tsu-kun sounds excited." Nana laughed when she heard the scream.

"Good morning mama." I greeted her.

"Good morning to you too Zero-chan, I haven't seen you for a while."

"Yes, I had some... stuff to do in Italy."

"Well, I'm glad that you're back Zero-chan, Reborn-kun and Tsu-kun missed you…"

"I can't really miss Reborn's wedding, can I?" I smiled, how can I miss the wedding of my older brother? And now I can tease him about future nieces and nephews… _can I?_ considering his curse and… well, we'll see when the time comes.

"Now we are talking about Reborn-kun, he is right behind that door. Are you going to congratulate him?"

"Hmm, I think that I will greet Bianchi-san first." I mused.

"Sure, Bianchi is right behind that door." Nana said as she gestured to one of the doors. "In the meanwhile, I'll just talk with your uncles."

"Sure, thank you mama." I thanked her before knocking on Bianchi's door.

"Come in." came the reply. I smiled as I pushed the door open.

"Kufufufu, congratulations with your wedding." I chuckled when I saw her surprised expression.

"Z-Zero-chan! You came!" she beamed. Bianchi put her own bouquet carefully on a table and approached me. "And you look amazing!" She smiled as she gratefully accepted the small bouquet of orchids from me.

"Kufufufu, _you_ are the one who looks amazing Bianchi-san! And of course I came, I can't miss your wedding right? not when we are going to become family." I laughed.

"…Family?" Bianchi asked after thinking for a while. I panicked a bit when I realized that I said the last part out loud as well.

"Yes! Reborn is like a brother to me!" I explained… but to say the truth he _is_ my brother.

"Like a brother?"

"Kufufufu... yes?"

"…How wonderful! You should call me nee-san then." Bianchi beamed.

"Kufufufu, that sounds like a great idea nee-san."

…

"I hope that no one will notice." Tsuna muttered as he stared at the Reborn-robot next to Bianchi on the reception.

"Notice what Tsuna?" he heard a familiar voice ask.

"Hieee! Zero?!" He shouted, alarming the others around the table. The seat across him which was empty just a few seconds ago was now occupied by a certain white haired girl in a violet dress.

"Good to see you again too, Tsuna." She chuckled. "Missed me?"

"W-what the-" Dino breathed when he saw the girl too. He wasn't sure in the beginning, but now the girl appeared out of nowhere for the second time he was sure.

_That girl is a ghost_.

"Where the hell did you come from, midget?!" Gokudera asked an unfortunate waiter who was walking by. The man almost dropped his plate in surprise and the albino girl chuckled in amusement.

"Kufufufu, Gokudera-san I'm right over here… or should I be calling you Gokudera-nii? Maybe Hayato-nii would be better?" Tsuna and Gokudera blinked blankly when they heard that and almost choked on air at the same time.

"W-what the hell midget?!" Gokudera coughed.

"Kufufufu, Bianchi is marrying Reborn… who I consider my older brother." Zero laughed. This got Tsuna in an even worse coughing fit.

"R-Reborn w-what?" he coughed. "When did that happen?!"

"When you were in the infirmary, Tsuna. We had some… sibling-bonding back then." Zero smiled. Looking completely oblivious for the fact that she freaked out the three people on the table.

"B-bonding o-over what?" Tsuna managed to ask between his coughs.

"…You know sibling bonding… talking about family and stuff like weather and… hmm, what more… that is right! Best ways of teaching students!" The girl beamed. Reborn's current and former students looked at each other and started to get more and more uncomfortable as their brains were slowly processing the information that Zero provided.

"R-Reborn and y-you t-t-teaching wh-wha-" Dino stuttered but he was interrupted by the Reborn-robot that malfunctioned because of the Champaign.

…

This situation was pretty funny if you ignored the fact that Reborn wasn't present on his own wedding. I looked past the small crowd and looked at the short-circuiting Reborn-robot.

"Is something wrong with the… robot?" I asked before I realized that only Gokudera and I were left sitting around the table. "Where is everyone?"

"Tch, they have gone to talk to the groom." Gokudera answered.

"You mean that they are repairing the robot?"

"You noticed that it is a fake?"

"Like I said, Hayato-nii, Reborn is like my brother. It would be weird if I didn't notice anything weird… and you forgot that my Famiglia is an inventors Famiglia, I can tell the difference between a living being and a robot almost immediately." I sighed.

"Don't call me that, midget." Gokudera shivered. "It is weird."

"Sure." I shrugged. "Aren't you going to check up on your Juudaime?"

"…Don't cause trouble, midget."

"Sure… Goku-chan." I chuckled as he walked away with a scowl.

"Don't call me that either!"

"Kufufufu."

"Aren't you teasing the poor boy a bit too much, Zero?" Chris asked as he sat down in one of the now vacant seats around the table.

"Kufufufu, don't worry uncle Chris, he can take at least this much." I smiled slyly. "And I can't really help it, you know? He kind of reminds me of you…"

"Sure, Zero…"

"Kufufufu, I hope that they know how to repair the robot." I chuckled. "And where is uncle Seth?"

"He is… handling his perverted friend." Chris sighed as a small explosion sounded behind him. I looked past the man and smiled fondly at the silver glitters fluttering down.

"At least he is using his more friendly explosives here."

…

"Don't tell me that Bianchi made the cake…" Seth muttered when he saw the… bugs infested wedding cake.

"Probably." I nodded with a bright smile. It has been a while since I could taste her cooking and looks could be deceiving, especially Bianchi's cooking.

"I can't believe that you actually can eat her food, Zero." Chris scowled in disgust. "I mean, they are bugs infested!"

"When you remove the bugs, it tastes pretty good." I shrugged.

"…You know that you are the only one here that is able to eat that without getting a chance of dying because of severe food poisoning, right?" Seth asked. "And with this many people… Shamal will have to help me with curing them of their food poisoning before it is too late."

"Hmm… That could be a problem." I frowned.

"The pervert won't be a great help. So… should we 'accidentally' blow the cake up?" Chris asked. Seth nodded in agreement but I disagreed.

"We can't really destroy a _wedding_ cake, you know? This is only going to end up badly…" I sighed as I returned my attention to the cake… where the probably malfunctioning Reborn-robot just jumped in.

"…At least we're saved?" Seth said hesitantly as I sighed In disappointment.

"The next time this kind of thing is needed, _we_ are going to provide the lookalike-robot."

…

I tilted my head in confusion when Bianchi suddenly snapped and when everything she touched became… desserts? _Desserts, really?_ In my curiosity I broke a piece of the table and put it in my mouth. Yes, without a doubt a dessert that Bianchi made…

_It was delicious._

"That is the ultimate dish in poison cooking, purple and red poison variety." Reborn smirked when he entered the church through a window. "You finally did it!"

"And I have to admit, it tastes absolutely great!" I smiled.

"Hieee! Stop eating that Zero!" Tsuna shouted in horror when he saw me breaking a piece of a table nearby.

"Don't worry Tsuna." I smiled before I put the piece in my mouth. "It won't kill me."

"Of course it will! It is poison!" Tsuna protested panickly.

"Kufufufu, don't worry Tsuna. Like I said, it won't kill me." I laughed. "It's just poison."

"_Just_ poison?!"

"I'm immune to poison, don't worry Tsuna." I smiled as broke another piece of the table. "And like I said, it tastes great!"

Tsuna gave me a horrified look before he decided that he couldn't convince me to stop eating the poison and turned his attention to Reborn.

"Is it alright to run off to get a wedding ring?" he asked the hitman.

"Don't misunderstand." Reborn began. "That's a weapon that shoots out a piano wire."

"Then this whole wedding thing…" Tsuna began as he watched the happy Bianchi.

"Doesn't count of course." Reborn finished.

"Then what about our wedding gift?" I wondered out loud.

"Ciaossu Zero." Reborn smiled. "Welcome back and which gift?"

"Hello brother, it's good to be back." I flower-smiled before I retrieved an envelope that contained pictures of Verde glued to the ceiling from Seth. My smile turned more mischievous when I saw a hint of recognition in Reborn's eyes. "This, kufufufu. But I guess that I'll be giving you this later when we have something real to celebrate."

_Brother or not, messing around with feelings isn't nice…_ that and the slightly betrayed look on Reborn's face was _really_ nostalgic.

_It is great to be back._

…

_I know that I decided to give the pictures on another day, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't know what to do with them in the meantime_, I sighed. I looked at my bag and tried to forget about the envelope that was 'innocently' stuffed in it.

"Sometimes I wonder if giving Renato blackmail material isn't going to backfire eventually." I muttered as I walked around in the mini market. I was going to stock up on cocoa because my uncles tried to hide my usual stash from me, too much of this stuff in the summer isn't healthy or so they say… even though they both knew that I was going to stay healthy anyways. I knew where they hid it, but it wouldn't hurt to create another secret stash of cocoa… _now I think about it, maybe I should buy some chocolate as well._

After I asked a friendly man for a few boxes of cocoa, which were on a shelf that I still couldn't reach, I made my way to the shelves with the chocolate. I stopped walking when I saw a familiar girl who was staring at the cakes in another section.

"_Kufufufu, good morning I-pin-chan." _I greeted the Chinese kid as I approached her.

"_Ah Zero!"_ I-pin smiled. _"Good morning!"_

"_Are you on an errand?"_

"_Yes! I was doing groceries for mama!" _I-pin beamed.

"_So… do you want some cake? I can buy you some if you want me to." _I chuckled. The girl shook her head and tried to decline my offer, but I was already looking at several prepacked cakes.

"_Hmm now I think about it, I want some cake too. Would you mind if we bought some cakes for the others at the Sawada's as well?" _ I smiled before I started to load my shopping basket with different flavored cakes. _"Let's go I-pin-chan"_ I laughed as I took her hand and dragged her along before she could even think of declining my offer of treating everyone to cake.

After gathering all the stuff on our shopping lists, we paid for the groceries and walked to Tsuna's home. I talked about some unfortunate adventures of my Famiglia and Verde to distract I-pin from the fact that she couldn't refuse my offer of buying the cakes and she told me about her training and master in return.

"_S-so you are saying that your master looks a lot like Hi-Hibari-san?"_

"_Yes! I hope that you will meet him soon!" _I-pin smiled. I smiled back, but I was shivering in fear inside. Two skylarks at once… _one_ is more than enough and now she is saying that there are _two_ of them. _What is next?_

Alaude's ghost?

"_I-I would l-like that." _I smiled when I-pin looked up at me with a worried expression. I laughed softly when I realized that I froze in my tracks while I was thinking about skylarks and shook my head in slight amusement and embarrassment. Who knew that even after four hundred years I would still be slightly afraid of one person? I walked on, but this time it was I-pin who froze.

"_What… is that?"_ She asked as she pointed at… an electricity pole. Or a bird… or the sky.

"…_Is something wrong I-pin-chan?" _I asked uncertain of what she meant.

"_There are… weird people up there!"_ I-pin exclaimed. I frowned when she said that and stared in the direction that she pointed at again. Does she mean that there are people flying? Or…

"Don't tell me that he is trying this again…"

…

"Who are these people?!" Tsuna exclaimed as Reborn opened the door. I looked in the messy room and sighed when I recognized the two men with the weird outfits.

"Good job, Gokudera. I've got to give you credit." Reborn smirked.

"It's Reborn! The Vongola's top assassin!" One of the oddly dressed men exclaimed.

"And you are the ones on the electric pole outside." Reborn stated.

"No way, the camouflage is supposed to be perfect!"

"Hmm, actually you should read the instructions a bit better Allesandro." I sighed as I entered the room with I-pin. "Verde clearly mentioned that children are able to see through the camouflage."

"Zero-sama?!"

"Hello to you too, Flavio."

"Hieee, Zero?! Since when are you here?!"

"Haha, hello Zero."

"Midget?"

"Actually you are smaller than me now, Goku-chan. And hello Tsuna, Yamamoto-san." I greeted the three- two teens and the chibified teen.

"Shut up, midg-"

"What are you doing in here Zero-sama?" Flavio interrupted the smaller version of Gokudera.

"Fixing the trouble that Verde is causing of course." I sighed. "You know that the Neo Estraneo has an alliance with the Vongola right?"

"…We forgot?" Allesandro said sheepishly.

"…You mean that Verde 'forgot' to mention it, right?" I sighed. "Sorry for the trouble that our ally has caused the Vongola, Reborn."

"It's alright, Zero." Reborn smirked.

"Hmm… I know that look. You want to make a deal with me, right?"

"Indeed."

"The pictures for?"

"Forgetting this incident."

"Deal." I smiled as I retrieved the envelope with the pictures from my bag. "Use it wisely."

"I will."

"Why do I feel that I missed something?" Tsuna wondered out loud.

"Because you did, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn stated.

"Kufufufu, it's great to be back in Nanimori." I chuckled. "And I brought cake with me, right I-pin-chan?"

**Omake: great memories**

"Is this what I think that it is, Renato?" I asked my babyfied brother.

"A tanzuku, yes." Reborn smiled.

"We aren't going to celebrate Tanabata in Vongola style, are we?" I asked.

"Yes." The smile turned into a smirk and I blinked blankly as many memories passed through my mind.

…

_Flashback_

"Get back you fucking brat!"

"No way, octopus-head!"

"Nufufufu, stay still as I cast a little _innocent_ illusion over you A-"

**BOOOOOM**

"This is the ULTIMATE way of celebrating Tatanata!"

"Haha, it's Tanabata, not Tatanata."

"Stop crowding, herbivores."

"Hmm, is this really how we are supposed to celebrate Tanabata, Giotto?"

"I have absolutely no idea… can anyone explain why we are supposed to wear dresses?"

"Kufufufu. These aren't dresses, Giotto, they are traditional clothing from Japan… though I suspect that yours is indeed for females."

…

"Zero?" Reborn snapped me back to reality. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm fine, but…" I stared at the piece of paper in my head and sighed in annoyance. I have had enough of headaches because of a combination of Tanabata and Vongola already. "I refuse to participate."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**A small challenge: guess who is who in the omake, it should be easy. Anyways, one more… chapter? Wait seriously? One more chapter before the Kokuyo arc begins? Wao, I didn't realize that myself! Just a small question then: should Mukuro eventually join the Vongola (if I don't randomly decide to throw in a plottwist or something like that) or should I let him annoy Zero for a long, long while?**** And I mean, a **_**really**_** long while. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 21: festivals

"It's official." I scowled as I kept on writing and writing. "The next time that I leave Italy while we are still trying to catch thieves, I will make sure to leave an order to _not_ to blow up a whole town! The paperwork isn't funny!"

"At least it is Silicy…" Chris reassured me. "They are used to it…"

"Which is the saddest thing of all." I sighed. "The civilians there are probably more used to the destruction caused by the Neo Estraneo members than to the peaceful life that they were supposed to live."

"It was inevitable." Chris sighed in defeat and I sighed too. We bothered Silicy so many times that the neighboring town didn't even bother with evacuating when they heard explosions…

"Zero-sama! Your friends are here to take you to the summer festival!" Seth shouted from the hall.

"I'm coming!" I shouted back before I put down the pen.

"Don't come back too late, Zero." Chris smiled as he gathered the signed documents. "The paperwork needs to be done."

"Sure, uncle Chris." I smiled wryly before I got away from the paperwork as fast as I could, which was actually pretty fast, considering that I was wearing a kimono.

"Hahi! You look cute, Zero-chan!" Haru squealed when she saw me.

"Kufufufu, thank you Haru-san." I laughed. "You two look cute too."

"Thank you, Zero-chan." Kyoko smiled. "Let's go to the festival, onii-chan is already there!"

"Which booths do you want to visit, Kyoko-chan?" Haru asked the brunette when we started to make our way to the festival.

"I think that I want to catch some goldfishes." Kyoko mused. "What about you two, Haru-chan, Zero-chan?"

"I want to buy some masks!" Haru stated. "The masks there are pretty good and I want to see the fireworks!"

"Hmm, I think I want to visit the shooting booth…"

""… the _Shooting _booth?"" The girls asked, confused by the answer I gave.

"Kufufufu, indeed." I chuckled at their expressions. I was my brother's younger sister after all…

…

"Hahi, you are really good at this, Zero-chan!" Haru exclaimed as the small box and plushie fell from the shelves.

"You only missed once!" Kyoko added with a flower-smile.

"Kufufufufu, I'm not that good." I chuckled as I put down the gun and accepted the prices from the vendor. "I haven't used a gun in a long time already and Reborn can shoot down five prices with one bullet."

"Really?" Kyoko mused.

"Kufufufu, shooting is his specialty after all." I laughed when I saw the incredulous expression on the face of the shooting booth's vendor. He was probably fearing my brother's inevitable visit already, the poor man.

"I didn't know that you were a fan of Card Captor Sakura." Haru stated when she observed one of the prizes that I won: a box with clow cards in the size of normal playing cards.

"Hmm, I indeed liked the series but it were the cards that I liked the most." I smiled fondly while I cuddled the owl plushie that I won. "These cards remind me of the cards that my friend once used to predict the future."

"Predict the future with cards… like tarot?" Kyoko asked.

"Not really the future, just… how a possible event could turn out and it is a little different from tarot, I think. I don't really understand it." I admitted. Even though it has been four hundred years, I still couldn't find out how it actually works. I was taught how to use the cards as well, but the cards and my predictions didn't make any sense to me… though I was told that my predictions were pretty accurate.

"Then your friend is a fortune teller!" Haru said happily. "I know! Let's go to the fortune teller here!"

"Hmm, but we haven't found Ryohei nii-san yet…" I sweatdropped. Somehow we ended up taking many detours and now it has been a few hours since the festival officially started… which meant that Ryohei was alone all this time.

"Don't worry about nii-chan, Zero-chan." Kyoko reassured me. "He can protect himself!"

"…Sure."

"This way!" Haru stated as she led us through the festival. The crowd, strangely enough, became smaller and smaller as we approached the fortune teller booth and by the time that we reached the booth there were almost no people… which wasn't _that_ strange if you knew the identity of the fortuneteller.

"…Ryohei nii-san?" I frowned when I recognized the white haired teen standing in the decorated stand.

"Onii-chan? What are you doing here?" Kyoko asked in a curious tone.

"The fortune teller EXTREMELY asked me to look after his booth as long as he is gone!" Ryohei answered loudly.

"Why?" I muttered. Why would someone leave a fortune telling booth with him? I mean, Knuckle was a good listener and confider… but fortune telling? I would rather ask Daemon than Knuckle… and that says enough, but maybe I was thinking too much about the past. Ryohei could actually be good at fortune telling…

_Which is unlikely_, now I think about it. He would probably ask his customers to join the boxing club in his most extreme volume and chase them away… this would explain the lack of human activity around here.

"Since when have you been looking after this booth, Ryohei-san?" Haru asked the older teen. Ryohei thought about that for a while before he answered.

"Since the beginning of the festival."

"The… beginning?" I echoed in disbelieve. "Where has the fortune teller gone to?"

"He was EXTREMELY muttering about bad signs before he left." Ryohei answered in an uncertain tone.

"And he didn't come back afterwards…" I concluded. "Why haven't you gone to find him, Ryohei nii-san?"

"Because I EXTREMELY promised him to look after his booth!" Ryohei exclaimed and I sighed in defeat. This kind of thing once happened with Knuckle as well… and he ended up with having to look after a small church for an entire week!

"Hmm, Ryohei nii-san, why don't you go and look for him while I look after the booth for you?" I offered. I didn't know how the fortune teller looked like but if I couldn't help with finding the vendor, I could at least take Ryohei's place so he could look for him.

"Are you sure about this Zero-chan?" Kyoko asked.

"Of course Kyoko-san." I smiled. "This way, your brother will be able to enjoy the festival as well, and I don't mind looking after this booth."

"But I wanted to see the fireworks with everyone…" Haru pouted.

"Kufufufu, when Ryohei nii-san has found the fortune teller I will go and look for you guys." I reassured her. Haru and Kyoko nodded in response and returned to the festivities after making Ryohei promise to find the fortune teller.

"Then I will be EXTREMELY going too!" Ryohei exclaimed before running off to find the missing fortune teller. "Thank you for looking after the booth! I will be back soon to the EXTREME!"

"Kufufufu, good luck Ryohei nii-san!" I chuckled before putting the owl plushie next to the crystal ball in the stand. When that was done I observed the objects placed in the stand. A crystal ball, some posters about stars surrounded by glow in the dark stars, something that looked like an 8 ball and… fortune cookies?

_What are those doing here?_

I sighed at the objects that were practically seen useless to me. I couldn't use a single one to predict the future like I was taught… _wait_. I looked at the innocent box of clow cards in my hand and smiled hopefully.

_This could work…_

I opened the box with the clow cards and shuffled the cards absentmindedly. I haven't tried to predict the future in… 33 years or something like that? It has been a lifetime and a half ago… I looked at the cards that I was shuffling and wondered if the predictions or answers to questions still didn't make any sense to me.

"Only one way to figure that out…" I muttered as I pondered about a question to ask the cards. "Hmm… what about: Why does Ryohei nii-san want me to call him nii-san?" I asked before I spread the cards out and picked one of the cards.

_The mirror…_

"The mirror?" I frowned. "He wants me to call him nii-san because we look alike? But we don't look alike at all…" unless he wants me to call him that because we have the same hair color…

_No way, right?_, I thought. _That doesn't make any sense…_

My musings were interrupted when the first customer came and I let the matter rest for now. _I wonder if the predictions will make sense to other people…_

…

"Lambo-sama found Zero-nee!" I heard someone shout in the area. I looked past the small crowd that returned after Ryohei left and smiled at the boy that was waving at me.

"Hello Lambo-kun." I greeted the approaching kid. "Are you here alone, or has the way lost you again?"

"The way didn't lose me this time! Dame-Tsuna did!" Lambo declared, proud that he didn't let the way lose him again.

"Tsuna?" I sweatdropped. The poor teen was probably looking for Lambo…

"Here you are Lam- Hieee, Zero?!" Tsuna shouted as he ran to the fortune teller booth.

"Kufufufu, hello Tsuna. Are you looking after Lambo?"

"Yes, I'm actually looking after I-pin too, but… what are you doing in there, Zero?"

"I'm looking after this booth for Ryohei nii-san…"

"…Nii-san?" Tsuna frowned. "_He_ is the fortune teller that everyone is talking about?"

"Hmm, people are talking about the fortune teller?" I asked.

"Yeah, the fortune teller apparently uses anime playing cards to predict the future rather accurately." Tsuna answered.

"…That would actually be me." I smiled sheepishly. _So my predictions are accurate even though they still make no sense to me?_

"Really?" Tsuna wondered out loud. "I didn't know that you were an otaku… Did I say that out loud?"

"Kufufufu, you did." I laughed. "And I do like anime, especially KatekYoshi Hitmen Rebirth."

"Haha…" Tsuna laughed awkwardly. "So you are looking after this booth for nii-san?"

"Actually… I'm looking after this booth for Ryohei nii-san, who was looking after the booth for the actual fortune teller… who is currently missing." I explained. "Ryohei nii-san is now looking for him."

"…That sounds complicated." Tsuna sweatdropped.

"I agree with that." I nodded.

"Zero-nee, can you tell the future?" Lambo asked in a curious tone.

"No, Lambo-kun, I can only predict how a future event will turn out and answer questions with the cards." I smiled.

"Can I ask a question then?" The kid asked me. "I-pin is playing hide and seek now, where is she?"

"Lambo-kun, you can't cheat with hide and seek." I playfully scolded the boy.

"Actually, we lost her." Tsuna stated hesitantly. I looked at the teen and sighed.

"I can't believe that you lost a kid in this crowd." I muttered as I shuffled the clow cards and spread them over the wooden table. "Pick one of these cards, Lambo-kun, we'll see what the cards will tell us about this situation."

"This one." Lambo said as he picked one of the cards.

"The… time." I frowned when I saw the card that he picked, why would someone who is lost be 'in time'? Unless... "…Lambo-kun have you brought your ten years bazooka with you?"

"…I don't know about a ten years bazooka." Lambo answered 'innocently'.

"That would explain why we can't find her." Tsuna sighed when he realized what I was implying.

"Do you have a question as well, Tsuna?"

"Me?" Tsuna asked. "Well…"

"Ask already, Dame-Tsuna!" Lambo shouted impatiently.

"Will I be able to see the fireworks with Kyo- with who I want to?" Tsuna blurted out.

"Hmm? Alright, let's see… pick a card." I chuckled while gesturing to the cards that I spread out.

"The dream?" Tsuna read out loud before he gave the card to me.

"This means that you will be able to see the fireworks with the one you want to… however not exactly in the way you expected." I explained while inwardly wondering if there was anyone could understand whatever I was saying. "I think that you should chase Lambo-kun by the way."

"Lambo?" Tsuna frowned confused. I nodded at the spot where Lambo was… which was empty now. "Hieee?!"

"That way." I stated as I pointed in the direction that Lambo disappeared to.

"See you later, Zero!" Tsuna shouted as he ran in the direction I pointed at.

"Kufufufu." I laughed as I shook my head and started to shuffle the cards again.

…

"What the fuck?"

"Hello to you too, Goku-chan." I greeted Gokudera.

"Hello Zero-chan." Yamamoto greeted me.

"What are you doing here, midget?" Gokudera scowled.

"Working, Goku-chan." I smiled.

"Don't call me tha-"

"What a fun nickname." Yamamoto laughed. "Do you have one for me too?"

"For you?" I mused as I tilted my head. If Mukuro is Muku-chan, Tsunayoshi is Tsuna and Gokudera is Goku-chan… "What about Yama-kun?"

"Sounds good, Zero-chan."

"Stop interrupting me, baseball-freak!" Gokudera exploded. "Are you the fortune teller tha-"

"That makes rather accurate predictions with anime playing cards? Yes that is me." I sighed. In the last few hours, I was asked this question too many times. "Do you have a question to ask the cards?"

"How are you predicting the future with anime playing cards anyways?" Gokudera grumbled.

"Well… it's not tarot.' I stated sheepishly, I still didn't know how it worked. I could give him some background information though. "This 'prediction style' is based on a style and deck of cards that was created almost four hundred years ago. They were made by three people of whom two of them were to be said to be blessed with the ability to communicate with spirits. The clow cards are simply similar to those cards, so I'm using these cards in that prediction style... though it is a bit different because some cards are different. In the original style you have to pick three cards instead of one."

"Four hundred years…" Yamamoto echoed in an impressed tone. "That is a long time ago."

"Spirits…" Gokudera muttered and I sweatdropped. I could swear that Gokudera turned into G for a minute, he was always muttering about spirits and fairies like Gokudera just did…

"I can show you those cards and the original style too." I flower-smiled.

"Really?" Yamamoto asked.

"Yes." I nodded before I casted a small illusion over the clow cards.

"How did you do that?" Gokudera asked while looking at the different symbols that were now on the cards.

"Kufufufu, you'll find out eventually." I laughed. "Everything is possible with a bit of magic…"

"Haha, that sounds amazing, Zero-chan!" Yamamoto laughed. "Can you predict our future?" I nodded and started the incantation I was taught.

"The cards, the cards, the cards will tell… The past, the present, and the future as well. The cards, the cards, just take three. Take a little trip into your future with me…" I whispered mysteriously as I spread the cards and picked three of the cards.

"You aren't going to say that you have friends on the other side, are you?" Gokudera asked warily as he picked three of the cards as well.

"Kufufufu, no that would be weird."

"Here." Yamamoto smiled as he gave me his cards.

"Alright, let's see. You have picked the sky, bird and the maze cards. This could mean that someone or something will be freed and yet get lost or that you will have to make an important choice that could either free you or get you more lost than before. Be careful with the decisions you make in the future, Yama-kun." I nodded.

"This is weird." Gokudera scowled.

"This is how I was taught to read the cards, it could mean something entirely else too." I shrugged. "Now your cards… the treasure, the through and the storm. This could mean that you will lose something or something will be stolen from you. And when that happens, a storm will brew so be careful with your stuff."

"Why do we get ominous predictions?" Gokudera asked.

"Like I said, this is how I taught to read it." I shrugged again. "And now my cards. The mist, the illusion and the return… this could mean that something that was once known will be changed by the time I see it again… though that change could be something that I imagine as well." I frowned. "My predictions still make no sense to me…"

"They don't make sense to me either." Gokudera 'kindly' informed me.

"Don't worry Zero-chan, no one knows what will happen in the future." Yamamoto smiled.

"Thanks Yama-kun, but I know that the cards could be interpreted literally as well." I smiled. "So be careful of anyone with a name meaning 'bird', with thieves and with things that you lost. Everything could have changed by the time you see it again."

…

"I EXTREMELY found the fortune teller!" I heard Ryohei shout. The crowd that gathered before quickly dispersed as Ryohei and two other figures appeared… and I couldn't blame them. Everyone would run away from Hibari who was dragging a half-dead body with him.

"He disrupted the peace in Nanimori." Hibari stated as he dropped the body. "Now, follow me, rabbit."

" S-sure." I nodded as I quickly gathered my cards before following the skylark… a skylark is a bird isn't it? Now I think about it, his first name is Kyoya…

"Tell me where the thieves are." Hibari ordered when Ryohei was out of sight.

"W-what?" I asked, another part of the literal predictions came true?

"Hn."

"I can't tell the future! I can predict how something could turn out!" I protested as someone ran past us.

"Stop the thief!" Tsuna shouted as he ran past us as well.

"…But I think you have to go that way." I pointed at the direction that the two running figures disappeared to.

"Hn."

"Why do I have to follow you?" I muttered, but I did run after Hibari. By the time that I was halfway up the stairs, I lost sight of the teen. "…Don't tell me that Hibari-san is the 'thing' that I lost." I muttered.

When I reached the end of the stairs I saw an unbelievable scene… Hibari was fighting _with_ Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto! Not _against_!

"Ciaossu, Zero."

"Hello Reborn." I smiled.

"You are just in time for the fireworks!" he smiled back.

"…You didn't plan this, did you?" I asked as I gestured to the battlefield.

"…Maybe?"

"…Right."

"Zero-chan!" I heard someone shout from the stairs.

"Haru-san? Kyoko-san?"

"We finally caught up with you! You are fast, even in a kimono." Kyoko flower-smiled. I returned the flower-smile and apologized for running past them. After that we joined the boys and enjoyed the fireworks.

"By the way, Tsuna, about your prediction?"

"Yes, Zero?"

"I'm sorry that you couldn't see the fireworks with Hibari-san in the way that you wanted."

"Wha-"

"ZEEEEEERRRROOOOO-CHAAAAAAN you EXTREMELY forgot this!" Ryohei interrupted Tsuna as he ran closer.

"…Thank you, Ryohei nii-san." I smiled as I accepted the owl plushie that I forgot and card that I probably dropped, but the smile dropped when I saw what was on the clow card: The nothing, but it was the card that it translated in that worried me…

_The death._

…

**Omake: a dare of courage**

After the ghost of Romeo disappeared, Tsuna was honestly tired of the lantern festival so he was very glad that the festival was now over and that he could go home. He couldn't wait to get out of the creepy cemetery as fast as he could, but when he started walking he tripped over… something and fell to the ground.

"Are you alright, Tsuna?" Zero asked after she appeared out of nowhere.

"Hieee Zero?!" Tsuna shouted in surprise. "I didn't know that you were invited!"

"I'm… not? Who are you talking to Tsuna?" Someone behind him asked. Tsuna turned around slowly… just to see Zero standing behind him.

"Kufufufu." The other Zero chuckled, but the chuckle quickly became a mad laughter. "Kufufufufufu, it seems that my game is over now." The other Zero cackled before she burst out in indigo and white flames.

"G-ghost…" Tsuna stuttered before fainting.

"…Did I overdo it, Reborn?" Zero asked the hitman while thinking that she got this kind of reaction a lot lately.

"Don't worry about him, Zero. And thank you for 'the door to the underworld'." Reborn smirked.

"You're welcome, brother…" Zero chuckled. "I was already thinking that this invention was useless… I hope that the card was predicting this event."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**When I was writing this chapter I honestly didn't know how it would end up, so I hope that it ended up ok. I was thinking that Zero would like to go to the shooting booth and considering that she was good with card games I thought that it would be funny to let her be able to 'predict a future' that doesn't make sense to her but always comes true… one way or another. And then I couldn't help but throw some references in… I found some mistakes in some of the former chapters (Renato's age), but I fixed that.  
I liked the idea of the immortal jellyfish, mysterious guest, thank you for the idea :D!  
As for Mukuro… I have planned it out now, thank you for your responses kufufufu.  
And you left a lot of reviews, Grizzmon, with a few questions that I am able to answer without spoilers :). The reason why I chose not to let someone from our world to reincarnate into the KHR universe was because there were a lot of fanfictions about that already and because at least three former life's will influence the storyline (you will see which ones). And she is indeed some kind of weapon maker, her body is indeed weak but only because of her weak bones and indeed, in this life she has been kidnapped twice. About Mukuro… you'll have to wait for that answer, kufufufufu.  
Talking about 'a lot of reviews'… 111 reviews XD this needs another celebration omake! (I hope that I won't run out of these stories soon…)**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 8**

Renato knew that the 'Sinclair genes' were more dangerous than someone would suspect. Sure, everyone his father's family was devilishly handsome and smart in their own way… but they were cunning and sly above all. His grandfather, of who Renato inherited his curly sideburns, was rumored to have conned the devil for a prolonged life and Renato couldn't blame the persons who stared the rumor.

His grandfather from his father's side was the most cunning and sly man that he knew and his father… let's say that he picked up some habits from the old man, resulting in a slightly sadistic personality when Renatus Sinclair was negotiating. Renato had to admit that he thought that his father was even better at negotiating and blackmailing than his grandfather, but he could be biased because he lived with him.

Renato also knew that his mother's genes were dangerous as well. Though his mother's family weren't as smart and cunning as the Sinclair's, they were dangerous in their own way. Their athletic abilities and dexterity weren't something to overlook and don't forget their overwhelming presence.

Renato's grandfather from his mother's side was rumored to have scared the angels of death away with his mere presence and Renato could understand these rumors as well… though Renato had to admit that his mother could be even scarier than the old man. His mother inherited all the best parts of her family… or the worst. Her naturally sadistic personality that even surpassed her father's was a proof of that, but once again this could be a biased opinion from the hitman in training.

It was a miracle that Serena and Renatus could fall in love and marry, considering the competitive nature of both their families… Renato knew better than anyone what could happen if his parents clashed and he didn't want to imagine what would happen if their _families_ clashed. He had seen pictures of the wedding of his parents and… no, he didn't want to have firsthand experience with a clash between his father's and mother's relatives.

Renato knew that he inherited most of his features from his family, from his looks to his competitive nature and abilities… it was a dangerous mix, considering all the dangerous abilities of his family but his parents made sure that he used his abilities to their full capacities. However, that wasn't the only thing he inherited. His slightly sadistic personality was inherited from both the sides of the families as well. It was inevitable to become, at least slightly, sadistic in a family like this after all.

His little sister however…

Renato would never forget the day that he found out that Renata could have inherited more from their families than he thought.

On one of the rare family reunions that Renatus and Serena slyly planned, Renata showed her family that she was… someone to be feared in her own way. Their grandfathers never knew that they could be beaten in their own games… all of their relatives for that matter. Even their parents were surprised when Renata _destroyed_ them with card games, the only one who didn't seem to be surprised was their cat who wasn't even there to begin with.

Poker, black jack, old maid, no matter which card game they played, Renata would win with an innocent smile that never wavered in front of the intimidating presences of his family… Her way of using bluffs and expert card handling that no one expected her to have proved that she inherited the dexterity and cunning mind from both sides of her family and the innocent smile…

Renato couldn't help but think that his younger sister somehow inherited the sadistic personality from their family too, but he hoped that he was biased in this opinion as well.

**Next time: Kokuyo arc! That I still have to type out… but I will manage! (I hope). Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 22: uninformed

"There has been another assault case." Chris stated at the dining table during breakfast. I ignored the breakfast that I cooked and frowned at my uncles who were sitting across the table.

"Assault case?" I asked.

"Right, you locked yourself up in your workplace to finish the paperwork so you don't know about it." Seth nodded. "A series of assaults has been happening in Nanimori, the victims had their teeth removed so it is almost sure that it was the same culprit."

"The worst thing of all is that the victims are from your school." Chris continued. "Be careful when going to school, I think that it would be for the best if you stayed invisible on the way to school… and take some weapons with you."

"Why would I need weapons, uncle Chris?" I sweatdropped. "You know that I'm able to create weapons with illusions, right?"

"We would feel better if you brought something _real_ to protect yourself with…" Seth stated. "So we asked our members to send over some weapons."

"You… what?"

"We have a lot of weapons to choose from because of that." Chris gestured to something behind me. I turned around and noticed the impressive collection of weapons in many different sizes.

"They expect me to be able to carry that around?" I asked, dumbfounded by the sheer amount of weapons that my Famiglia somehow managed to send over without being confiscated by the government… and wondering how the hell I didn't see this before. Ignoring the huge amount of different kinds of guns, there were at least ten stun guns, knowing my Famiglia they were probably modified, twenty baseball bat-swords and even two huge battle axes that are bigger than me!

"Not all of it." Seth reassured me. "Just eighty percent of this."

"…Are you kidding me?"

…

"Zero-sama, could you please deliver this to Shamal?" Seth asked just before I left the house for school with the least amount of weapons that I was allowed. "The pervert chose to let his medicine delivered at our house instead of his own… sometimes I wonder if he is homeless."

"…Sure, uncle Seth." I sweatdropped as I accepted the bag from him. "Sakura…kura?"

"An illness that makes people weak when they are close to cherry blossoms, I can only guess that the idiot infected someone with his mosquitos." Seth sighed. "And then he managed to actually order the wrong kind of cure, the one he ordered was only temporary. Luckily enough I had some of the right ones stocked here…"

"…" I frowned in confusion and tilted my head. Why do we have a cure of an illness that I've never heard of in all my life's stocked?

"I used to clean up his mess, remember?" Seth explained when he saw my confusion.

"…Right, see you later uncle Seth!" I smiled before leaving the house.

"Wait! Rather than delivering this to the pervert, you should deliver the cure to the victim!" Seth shouted in the distance.

"Who is the victim?!"

"Hibari Kyoya!"

…_what?_

…

For once, I was happy that my uncles were ridiculous in their demands of keeping me safe from harm. The weapons they forced on me kind of calmed me down as I was standing in front of the reception room.

At least I have a stun gun in my hands and other weapons stuffed in my bag to protect myself when Hibari decides that he wants to murder me because I had a connection with the one who infected him with an unknown illness… you could never be prepared enough with skylarks. And I knew that because of firsthand experience.

"Hmm, here goes nothing." I muttered as I knocked on the door. My anxiety worsened with every second that I had to wait… until I was sure that I wouldn't get a response anymore. I readied my stun gun, like I said you could never be prepared enough with skylarks, and pushed the door open… and noticed that the room was empty.

"…I should deliver this to Shamal then." I sighed before I made my way to the infirmary… which was empty as well. I walked in the room and looked around to make sure that the doctor wasn't hidden in one of the beds or something, but the beds were empty as well.

"Ah, Zero-chan. How is Joseph doing?" Someone right behind me asked. I quickly turned around and… in a reflex I stun gunned Shamal with the modified stun gun that was still in my hands.

"…Sorry?"

…

Class was different this time. Not because I stunned Shamal, which made me late for my classes, but because the classroom was half-empty. The teacher looked heartbroken when I walked in with a notice from the school nurse… that I forged. The school nurse was still stunned and lying on one of the beds in the infirmary after all.

"Hmm, where is everyone?" I asked Hana, who was sitting in the seat behind me.

"Didn't you know?" The black haired teen asked. "Kyoko is at the hospital because her brother is assaulted."

"Ryohei nii-san?" I gasped. "He is in the hospital?"

"Yes… Most of the others simply didn't go to school because of the assaults and others went to the hospitals because their acquaintances were assaulted. One of the monkeys you are befriended with, the one with the permanent scowl and puppy tendencies, left around ten minutes before you entered the classroom… Now I think about it, why are you late?"

"Hmm… would you believe me if I said that I brought a stun gun to school?"

"Knowing your uncles? Yes, they would rather defy Hibari than let you walk around in a 'dangerous area' without anything to protect yourself with."

"I kind of accidentally stun gunned the school nurse?"

"…That is the best thing you have done since you became class president." Hana stated with a serious tone. "Remind me to treat you to hot chocolate because you got rid of that pervert."

…

"I believe that something is happening out there." I frowned during lunch.

"What are you talking about, Zero-chan?" Yamamoto asked.

"I don't know, I just got the feeling that something is… wrong."

"Maybe you are paranoid because of the assaults." Hana pointed out before she continued eating from my second bento. The girl decided to sit on the roof with Yamamoto and me for once because all her other friends were absent. "Besides, I don't understand how your food can taste so good while it looks so… formless."

"Kufufufu, it's a talent." I chuckled nervously, glad for the distraction even though the distraction didn't really work. Something was wrong. Very wrong. And I get the feeling that it was somehow connected to me.

"Zero-chan, your phone is going haywire." Yamamoto snapped me out of my thoughts. I blinked blankly before looking at my bag where my phone was in. In my thoughts, I didn't notice the wildly vibrating patch of my bag..

"Thanks." I muttered as I stood up from my spot and retrieved my phone from my bag. I apparently had three messages. I opened the one from Chris first.

_Zero,_

_I heard that you stun gunned the pervert, good job._

_Chris_

I chuckled and shook my head in slight amusement and opened the message from Seth next.

_Zero-sama,_

_I heard that you stun gunned Shamal, you should be happy that you are immune to illnesses or you would been infected by his mosquitos… but well done._

_Joseph_

I chuckled and shook my head again before opening the last message… from Tsuna?

_Zero_

_I can't contact Gokudera and he is the next victim to the assaults! Do you know where he is?_

_Tsuna_

"…Gokudera is what?!" I exclaimed.

"What is wrong Zero-chan?" Yamamoto asked.

"Gokudera is in danger!"

"The scowling monkey?"

"Maa maa, calm down Zero-chan. I'm sure that Gokudera is doing fine…" Yamamoto tried to reassure me, but I couldn't help but worry. I mean, the assaulter managed to hospitalize Ryohei!

"…Yama-kun, Goku-chan is apparently the next victim of the assaults." I stated in a grave tone. "And Tsuna is looking for him right now."

"That… sounds serious." Yamamoto stated, dropping his smile and frowning.

"I… can't track Gokudera, however I can track Tsuna. If we are lucky then we will be able to catch up with him."

"Wait a minute, Zero." Hana interrupted me. "You can't go out there! First of all, you are an eleven years old girl who isn't even able to attend the gym classes. Secondly, you have been absent for a few weeks! Aren't you still recovering from your cold? And lastly, I don't want to face your uncles because you somehow managed to get into trouble!"

"It's not my fault that my body is weak." I protested. And I wasn't ill… just doing paperwork. But though Hana probably had the wrong view of my uncles, she was right their reactions. Chris and Seth would freak out when they hear that I deliberately ran into trouble… everyone in my Famiglia would actually. I could already imagine the alarms going off and the robots.

_The robots._

Suddenly I felt less eager to run after Gokudera.

"I will go." Yamamoto stated in a serious tone. "Please tell me where Tsuna is."

"…Sure." I sighed. "Give me a second to track his phone."

"How will you do that?" Hana asked me, clearly relieved that I wouldn't go myself.

"Would you believe me if I told you that my crazy family installed some interesting features in my phone?" I asked.

"Knowing your uncles? Yes." Hana nodded.

"I can track whoever has recently contacted me with one push on a button."

"That is amazing, Zero-chan." Yamamoto smiled, though his smile was slightly strained.

"…Tsuna is at the shopping street. If you run then you should be able to catch up with him." I stated after letting my phone track Tsuna's phone.

"Right, I'll be going then-"

"Wait, Yama-kun." I interrupted the teen. "Take this with you."

"…Where did you get that baseball bat, Zero?" Hana asked.

"My uncles forced it on me."

"No, I mean where did you get it?"

"Would you believe me if I told you that my uncles managed to stuff my bag with all kinds of weapons?"

"Knowing your uncles?" Hana frowned. "…Yes, they defy logic to keep you safe."

…

When I realized that the medicine was still in my bag, I decided to deliver it to Shamal after school. That was why I was walking to the infirmary for the second time today, I was standing in front of the infirmary when I heard some people talking in the room. Wondering who hasn't left the school yet, I knocked on the door and looked inside.

"I will attend to Hayato's recuperation! If you're going to get in my way, step outside!" Bianchi shouted in the infirmary. I noted that Yamamoto, Tsuna and Shamal were trying to talk to Bianchi and I noticed Gokudera lying in one of the beds as well. Only Reborn wasn't here, but knowing my brother he couldn't be far away.

"Hmm… why am I the only one who didn't know that Goku-chan is here?" I frowned.

"Hieee?! Zero?!"

"Haha, sorry Zero-chan, I thought that you've gone home already." Yamamoto apologized. I sighed and walked in the infirmary, approaching the resting Gokudera.

"He doesn't look _that_ bad." I nodded after observing him for a while. Compared to some of the wounds that G somehow managed to get, the burn wounds and the poisoning doesn't seem too bad. "Someone should give him some cure for the poison though."

"…Poison?" Bianchi asked.

"Yes, because of the Estraneo Famiglia I know more of poison than I would have wanted." I sighed, it was inevitable after being fed so many types of poison. I could at least tell the symptoms of different kinds of poisoning because of that. "Goku-chan over here is poisoned with a poison that paralyzes the body."

Bianchi exploded, I could see that she and Gokudera were indeed related now, and started cursing in many languages. I tilted my head when she started cussing in Russian, I didn't know that she knew that language too.

"I'm such an idiot!" I heard someone shout from the corridors between the curses. I glanced at the other occupants of the infirmary who somehow missed that shout and noticed that Tsuna wasn't there anymore.

I approached the door to talk with Tsuna but froze when I heard Reborn saying something that I never expected to hear.

"…within the next twelve hours you are to capture _Rokudo Mukuro _and his gang of suspects of murder. You are also to rescue the hostage at the same time. Best of luck, Vongola Nono"

"…Muku-chan?" I whispered incredulously. Was Reborn saying that Mukuro… _what?_ I blinked a few times in confusion and disbelieve before leaving the infirmary, just in time to see Tsuna run away.

"Ciaossu Zero."

"Brother… what were you saying about the suspects of murder?" I whispered, afraid that my voice would betray me when I asked the question normally.

"That is right, you locked yourself up because of the paperwork that your Famiglia caused which means that you don't know about this occurrence in Italy." Reborn nodded. "An entire Famiglia disappeared in one night and well… when a whole Famiglia disappears as fast as that it normally means that they are either hiding for something or dead. Rokudo Mukuro and his gang fled to Japan around the same time and it is kind of obvious that they are the one that murdered the Famiglia…"

"Rokudo… Mukuro?" I echoed, still in denial. Muku-chan? The boy I taught in his illusions? The pineapple haired boy whose greatest wish was to be free? The adorable boy who was afraid of the dark?

That Mukuro?

_Muku-chan?_

…

There were a few things that Tsuna never expected, like how Gokudera was able to move around properly after being completely beaten up just yesterday. How Yamamoto could be tricked so easily and how he could be so gullible. How Bianchi would wear that ridiculous helmet out of sibling love… and how stubborn Zero could be.

"You are not coming with us!" Reborn argued once again. _That is right_, Tsuna mused. He never expected to ever see Reborn losing his cool too.

The hitman was currently arguing with his eleven years old classmate in multiple languages. Tsuna could understand whatever they said in Japanese, but all the other languages were gibberish to him. Gokudera, however, informed him that they were discussing in Italian, Mandarin, German, French, Cantonese, English and Dutch. He also made clear that they were arguing in some other languages that he didn't recognize as well.

"I will be going, you are going to need me and I _need_ to go myself!" Zero shouted in Japanese.

"You can't!" Reborn shouted in an almost desperate tone, but the hitman never sounded desperate… it sounded demanding instead. "I just… don't want to lose you again."

"…Reborn."

"Listen to me, Renata. This is dangerous and your body isn't going to survive whatever is going to happen… please don't make me witness your death again." Reborn said in a low voice. "Not when I am able to prevent it this time. Please promise me that you won't follow me."

"…I… understand." Zero muttered in the end.

"Please protect them, Zero." Reborn frowned.

"That goes without saying." Zero sighed.

"…Thank you, Zero." Reborn said.

"Hmm, you're welcome… and Bianchi-nee?"

"Yes Zero-chan?"

"Please wear these goggles instead of that mask, it doesn't really look comfortable." Zero smiled as she gave some goggles to Bianchi.

"Thank you, Zero." Tsuna smiled, he was not sure about what just happened though he got the feeling that Zero just helped them. "Take care of yourself."

"Kufufufu, I will."

…

**Omake: point of view**

"Stop worrying, Zero." Hana sighed in her seat behind me. "Worrying isn't going to help your friends and the classes are over now, in case that you didn't notice that. I bet that you were so worried that you didn't notice it."

"But I got a really bad feeling about this." I complained. "And yes, I noticed it… just now."

"They are going to be alright Zero, have I ever mentioned that your monkey friends are like cockroaches?"

"No… what do you mean with they are gross enough to even chase the most dangerous person on earth up their couch?"

"I meant that they are unable to kill, Zero… Just how to you view cockroaches?"

"…You don't want to know that, Hana-san." I sighed. "Hmm, I still have to deliver the medicine to Shamal."

"The school nurse that you stunned?"

"That guy, yes."

"Be careful, Zero. I personally think that this 'nurse' is more dangerous than the assaulter." Hana warned me and I couldn't help but think that she could be right… just not in the way that Hana thought, Trident Shamal was still a hitman after all.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**From this point on, the story will differ a bit from the canon storyline and, as you may have noticed, I skip most of the parts that are canon to the original storyline and parts that don't involve Zero and her meddling… you can already see some results of her meddling in this chapter kufufufu. Anyways, Zero locked herself up to do her paperwork because blowing up a whole town is bound to cause a ton of paperwork… this means that she was unaware of what was happening. And I couldn't really see Reborn allowing Zero to tag along with them, knowing that she isn't able to fight and… that he saw Renata die before… I just really couldn't imagine it.  
About Giotto's underwear, mysterious guest number 1… I don't have any knowledge of the underwear of four hundred years ago, so let's say that they were boxers… sky blue with pinstripes?  
Sorry for saying this, but your life sounds like my personal hell, I. K. R.  
I personally think that this kind of scenario is very possible, mysterious guest number 2, I can already imagine it kufufufu.  
And this is very possible, SomeRandomPerson… I mean, Zero is able to build very large card houses (or castles) XD.  
Thanks for the other reviews as well! I'll try to update as much as I can, but because I have vacation now… with all these activities planned I can't get a hold on my computer D: ****Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 23: Kokuyo health land

_This is my fault_, Tsuna thought when the old man finished his explanation of what would happen to Kyoko and Haru if he wouldn't let himself stabbed by the knife. Tsuna knew that _he_ was the one that was involved with the mafia, not those girls. He knew that it was because of _him_ that they were now in danger and he regretted involving them.

He regretted endangered them.

The bottles of sulfuric acid was already raised above the heads of Kyoko and Haru when Birds, the old man, ordered the twins to stop for a second. Tsuna was relieved that neither of the girls were burned by the acid yet, but the relieve quickly turned into horror when he noticed the smaller shadow next to Kyoko's and Hana's shadows on the fence.

"Pan the camera." Birds ordered his bird.

"N-no way…" Tsuna stuttered when the monitor that showed Kyoko, Hana and one of the bloody twins panned to the eleven years old Primo. The girl that was now showed was completely oblivious to the danger she was in and opened her mouth to ask a question.

'_How is your brother doing, Kyoko-san?' _

"You are sick…" Bianchi scowled when the old man smiled brighter as he observed Zero.

"Isn't this just great?" Birds asked rhetorically. "That little girl over there will be the first, I can't wait to see what happens if she gets sulfuric acid poured all over her small body. I'm sure that her voice will be sounding entirely different then…"

"Stay away from her!" Yamamoto shouted and Gokudera glared at the man while cursing inwardly.

"I am not doing anything… as long as you follow my orders of course." Birds smirked while one of the bloody twins on the screens proceeded to tilt the bottle of acid above the head of the smallest girl on the monitor.

"STOP!" Tsuna shouted just before the first drop fell. "Stab me with that knife or whatever! I can't let her face anything like this, she is just an eleven years old girl!"

'_Freaks like you are so obviously into the Lolita complex.'_

…_what? _Everyone looked at the monitor again… just in time to see Zero on one of the monitors dissolve into indigo and white flames. The grey haired man that appeared in place of Zero scowled and barely avoided the acid that was poured down.

'_That was close! I should have known that the enemy is a pervert who would attack the youngest and most innocent looking target first!'_

The man exclaimed as the acid fell on the ground.

'_Like we haven't noticed that yet!'_

The brunet who was now standing in the spot where Kyoko was shouted. He picked some vials that were awfully familiar to Tsuna from his belt and threw it at the misformed man.

'_You guys… actually didn't need me here.'_

Shamal who was now in Hana's spot sighed as the vials broke and the bloody twin exploded.

'_You aren't the one who did anything, pervert! And what were you saying about Lolita complexes?!'_

'_I was talking about the pervert who was doing this!'_

'_Be happy that he asked Zero-sama to keep them safe, Vongola. Don't worry about those civilians, they are safe now… just be sure to not to strip too often.'_

Joseph stated when Shamal and Christiano started an argument in the background.

"…Those are the pervert and the midget's uncles, aren't they?" Gokudera muttered while staring at the screen.

"Ah! Haru is saved as well!" Yamamoto announced when he saw what was showed on the other screen. Haru was indeed saved by the ten years older I-pin and Lambo.

'_It's a good thing that we were watching out for Haru-san like we were told to.'_

The older I-pin said as the other bloody twin fell to the ground. Tsuna looked at the incredible scene and sighed in relieve. They were safe… but who asked them to keep the girls safe? _C-could it be…_

"Ahem, family help each other… allies as well." Reborn smiled, though he wasn't smiling on the inside… if she wasn't there, _then where is Zero?_

…

"Achoo!" I sneezed. I blinked a few times in confusion before I noticed that I was lost in my thoughts again. The scenery outside was already the scene of Kokuyo instead of the scene of Nanimori and the bus was emptier than before.

"Next bus stop: Kokuyo health land." The mechanic voice announced as the doors of the bus closed again and I sighed. Just one more bus stop according to the tracker…

I checked the screen of the disguised tracking device, the one disguised as a gaming console, and frowned when I saw that the red dot on the screen was standing still. This could mean that Bianchi threw the goggles away or that she isn't moving for some reason… though it could mean that they found the tracker in the goggles as well and got rid of it.

_Really, if those idiots just listened to me and let me tag along I wouldn't have to do this! _

"Zero-chan?" someone asked. I looked up and my frown dissolved into a fond smile when I saw who was talking.

"Hello Nagi-san." I greeted. The girl looked still as thin as before and the frown returned on my face.

"T-thank you for last t-time." The girl blushed.

"You're welcome Nagi-san… I wasn't lying when I was saying that you needed the brownies more than me." I sighed. "Are you eating well?"

"…" Nagi blushed a deeper red and looked at the changing scenery outside the window. Her silence confirmed that she was still not eating properly.

"You shou-" I began but the mechanic announcement interrupted me.

"Next bus stop: Kokuyo health land."

"…I have to get off the bus here." I sighed, there wasn't enough time to confront the girl about her eating problems now… however. I opened my bag and somehow managed to find the object that I was looking for before I had to leave the bus.

"Take this." I ordered as I forced the business card on Nagi. The girl stuttered something incomprehensible as she was forced to accept the card, but did accept it willingly in the end.

"…Nemo company?" She read out loud.

"Don't worry about that, it was a joke from a friend of mine. But the phone number on the business card is real, so call me when something goes wrong." I smiled and winked before closing my bag again and leaving the dumbfounded girl in her seat. "I hope to speak you soon." I waved as the bus left without me.

When the bus was out of sights, my smile dropped and I sighed. _I'm almost here_, I mused as I looked at the old amusement park in the distance.

_Kokuyo health land._

…

Kokuyo health land was exactly what I imagined an abandoned amusement park to be. Old, tattered and slightly creepy… the perfect place of holding a Halloween party if you ignored the dangerous hole in the ground. I wanted to make sure that I avoided that huge hole since falling in could break all my bones… but something made me approach the hole in curiosity.

A groaning sound.

I looked down the dark hole and saw the teen that was tied up in the dim light that illuminated the underground room. He looked like he was hit by a baseball bat and a big rock, in other words: completely beaten.

"Are you alright?!" I shouted.

"Does it look like I'm alright?!" The blond boy retorted. I suppressed a chuckle and thought a bit about what could have happened here. It was most likely that he was beaten by Tsuna and the others… but that would mean that he was part of Mukuro's… _gang_.

I was still uncomfortable with thinking that Muku-chan had a _gang_ now, I mean that cute boy and a gang? I simply couldn't imagine that! But if this teen was a part of that _gang_, he could tell me some stuff about Mukuro!

"Wait a minute! I'm going down!" I shouted as made an illusionary rope ladder and threw one end of the ladder down the hole. After making sure that the ladder won't suddenly fall down I climbed down while ignoring the protests of the scarred teen.

"Why are you coming down, you idiot byon?!" he asked when I reached the ground.

"Because you look like you've gone to hell and returned." I stated before looking for some bandages and scissors in my bag. I found the bandages, but I couldn't find the scissors so I took one of the many knives stored in my bag instead. After closing the bag again I approached the teen who was suddenly giving me a horrified look.

"What are you going to do with that byon?!" he asked.

"…You aren't thinking that I'm going to kill you, are you?" I deadpanned. The blonde didn't respond, though he did start growling at me, so I sighed and walked closer to cut the ropes and to give the boy some emergency treatment while muttering 'The youth of these days.'

"Why are you helping me byon?"

"Why do you keep on asking questions?" I retorted. "And well… because I want to get out of this hole."

"You can climb up your ladder again byon." The teen frowned, clearly confused by whatever I said.

"Not really…" I stated as I dissolved the illusion, fully aware that I won't have a way up anymore. But this is my chance to find out whatever is happening…

"…But… the ladder… was there." The teen muttered.

"What is your name?"

"…Why do you need my name?" he asked.

"If you aren't going to give me your name I'll have to call you Scarface or something like that." I flower-smiled.

"…Ken." The said teen answered with a blush after a small moment of silence.

"Nice to meet you Ken… are you hungry?" I asked when I heard his stomach rumble.

"No-"

"Let's eat then." I smiled as I retrieved two bento's from my bag. I pushed one of them in the hands of Ken before I opened my own box. "Why aren't you eating?"

"Why are you eating?"

"Well… you can't run properly when you are hungry. What if we get caught by the evil people?" I asked innocently. Lesson one of how-to-extract-information by Renatus Sinclair, try to let them talk and distract them from the fact that they are talking with bribes.

"We aren't evil byon! Especially Mukuro-san, he saved us all!"

"Saved?" I asked while wondering about two things. _I didn't expect this to be so easy_ and _Saved from what?_

"After living like that… everyday, children were dying. Every day was like a hell. No matter where we go, how much we struggled, there was no way for us to live. And Mukuro by himself managed to safe the most of us, he even gave us a good life to live!" Ken ranted while opening his bento. He put the first thing that he got his hands on in his mouth, ignoring the chopsticks and the appearance of the food, and started chewing. For a little while it was silent… and I was glad for that because I needed the silence to progress what Ken just said.

_He just implied that he was an Estraneo subject as well…_

"Mukuro-san, despite his discomfort, did what was the best for us. Even if that meant that he had to give those guys a chance." Ken continued after swallowing whatever he was eating. "He said that he did it because someone asked him to give them a chance… and he did. For five whole years we had the chance to either live as normal people despite whatever happened before or to travel around with Mukuro-san. To see the world that we never knew… He gave us a reason to live."

"H-he sounds like an amazing guy." I whispered when Ken finished his history, not really able to keep my eyes dry because of many reasons.

Why is this happening even though Mukuro was able to live a good life?

So he managed to safe other subjects?

He actually listened to my lame speech?

_He is still the same Mukuro I knew…_

…

"Use the stairs on the left side to go back." Ken stated. "And don't run into trouble byon."

"…Thank you, Ken-chan." I smiled. Though the talkative teen was probably unaware of it, he managed to make me more resolved to find Mukuro than before. After hearing that Mukuro hasn't changed at all in the six years that I haven't seen him I _needed_ to know what caused him to attack innocent civilians.

_And I will find out._

Ignoring the stutters and demands to retract that nickname from Ken, I started to climb the stairs as fast as I could. The stairs ended up somewhere in a forest, probably close to the hole where I was in before but I wasn't sure about that. After trying to find out in which direction I had to go in I opened my bag to find the tracking device… just to find out that the device had ran out of energy.

"Damn it." I muttered as I looked around in the forest. In a situation like this there is only one thing left to do… survive like Serena Sinclair taught me.

I shivered slightly in horror when I remembered the hellish training but recovered pretty fast. Following the orders in my memories I started to look for signs that someone went through this part of the forest. It wasn't long before I found some bushes that had broken twigs and footprints that led to… somewhere.

"Here goes nothing…" I muttered as I followed the footsteps. It took quite a while, but in the end I finally reached the end of the forest. I looked at something that could only be described as a battlefield and two wounded people… _is that Yamamoto?! _

"Yamamoto!" I shouted as I started running to the battlefield.

"Z-Zero?" Yamamoto muttered absentmindedly when I reached him. "I guess that your prediction came true… I made a choice that made me more lost than before… but I don't regret it at all. What are you doing here?"

"You're talking gibberish, Yama-kun. What happened here?" I frowned while gave his arm some emergency treatment.

"The fake Rokudo Mukuro." He managed to say. "Help him first."

"The… _fake_ Rokudo Mukuro?" I echoed. "…You mean that guy over there who doesn't look like him _at all_?"

"…"

"Yama-kun?" I tried, but he already lost consciousness so I gave up on talking with him. I finished bandaging his arm first before approaching the man who was leaning against a wall. After a quick observation, the man opened his eyes.

"Who-"

"Don't talk, you're poisoned like Goku-chan was. I should have the cure somewhere in my bag." I stated before looking around in my bag again.

"Why-"

"Am I carrying a cure for the poisoning around? Because Goku-chan was poisoned with it of course."

"No, why are you helping me?"

"…Hold on, this might sting." I muttered as I used a syringe to inject the cure in his body. the man tried to say something, but fainted before he could. One of the side effects of the cure… now I think about it, Goku-chan didn't take the permanent kind of cure. I should deliver this medicine to him too then…

I frowned when the man's body went from tense to relaxed and observed the not-lookalike of Mukuro.

Why was he Mukuro's supposed to be lookalike? Why not someone who actually looked like him or at least someone who had that weird pineapple hairstyle?

I sighed because I honestly didn't know and started treating some of his worst wounds. When I wanted to check his head for wounds as well I noticed something that wasn't supposed to be there. He had a permanent illusion planted in his head and I recognized the flame signature.

_So that is why Mukuro chose him._

…

**Omake: wrong**

"Kufufu."

Tsuna was freaked out by the blue haired teen who was asking him questions and honestly wanted to return to his friends. He was worried about them after all, but something made him turn around and face the teen again.

"First of all, there is one 'fu' too few and it is supposed to be higher pitched. Secondly, it is supposed to sound more amused than sinister. And lastly don't laugh like that around me please, when it comes from you… it's just disturbing." Tsuna stated before running off again.

"…What in the six hells did just happen?"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**You didn't really expect Zero to sit and wait, right? Especially since it is Muku-chan! good job to the ones who guessed that right :). Well, you can see that I don't really like Birds... but who does actually like this man-who-looks-older-than-he-actually-is? More changes in the plot because of Zero's meddling this time told by Ken! I personally think that Ken is the most talkative person of the gang and then this happened... let's say that this chapter was kind of the result of an accident. Anyways, because Mukuro actually listened to Zero, he stayed with Lanchia's Famiglia instead of killing them and getting into the Vindicare... that was kind of the result of an accident too. I was talking to some friends when someone mentioned that if they didn't listen to their therapist, they would have ended up in prison ages ago... (I still hope that they were joking)  
****That actually sounds hilarious, Grizzmon XD  
****You'll find out, Stellar Nymph, kufufufu.  
And... let's just say that the results of Zero being sad wont' be pretty, mysterious guest...  
More changes and explanations of the situation will come in the next chapter! Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 24: his memories

_The_ darkness_ wasn't the worst thing_, Lanchia thought. It were the voices that were screaming his name, it were the threats and the memories that were his and Mukuro's that frightened him the most. Especially the memories. The pain of his family dying, the horror when he realized that it was _him_ who killed them and the worst of all… the uncertain hope of his kouhai.

In the darkness of the most fearful memories of Mukuro was a small but bright light that he heard so much about. The 'voice' called Zero.

Lanchia knew about this Zero, how couldn't he? The so called imaginary friend of Mukuro who managed to teach him the use of illusions and who managed to convince him, even after all he had gone through, to give the mafia a chance. But Lanchia and all the others knew that the voice couldn't be real, though deep inside he knew that Mukuro couldn't have learnt all that he knows alone.

His skills with illusions were real, his believe in Zero was real, his determination to find Zero was real. Lanchia knew it better than anyone now, because he could see it. He could _feel_ it.

The distrust at their first meeting, the slow change from wariness to comfort as the meetings continued, the pride when praised, the fear when Zero could be an enemy, the pain and slight betrayal when Zero was gone.

The hope that Zero left behind.

It saved Mukuro from distrusting human beings in general, it made him to give the mafia a chance. And yet this had to happen.

Why did Mukuro possess him? Why did he make him kill his Famiglia?

Those questions echoed in Lanchia's mind while the memories of Mukuro and himself replayed itself over and over again. By now, Lanchia got the feeling that he understood Mukuro better than he understood himself and yet he didn't understand why Mukuro betrayed the trust of his Famiglia.

Another memory restarted, Lanchia was now in the darkness again. He knew what would happen here, Lanchia could almost feel the area stir long before it did and he could literally repeat the words that would be spoken.

_"Just why are you afraid?"_

"Hmm, this place is just like five years ago…" a vaguely familiar voice sounded from a small indigo flame, silencing the sound that Lanchia was hearing before and defying the usual routine of the memory that Lanchia was reliving.

"Who are you?" Lanchia asked warily when the small indigo and white flame burned brighter and brighter.

"Well… the scenery is different." The voice coming from the flame continued, ignoring Lanchia's question. The illusion stirred, just on time. Like it was supposed to do and the flame chuckled "Kufufufu, this time it looks… fake."

"…_Fake_?" the man exclaimed incredulously.

"Alright! Time to remove the illusion!" the flame shouted before growing big enough to fill Lanchia's vision.

…

I had to blink a few times before I could see what was happening in the permanent illusion. Permanent illusions weren't easy to make or to remove and Mukuro just had to overcomplicate it by inserting his own memories in it… and put it in some kind of loop. I could see the familiar scene where I met the younger Mukuro for the first time and couldn't suppress the small smile that appeared on my face.

It has been a while since I've seen an illusion made by my little student… though I would bet that he wasn't that small anymore. He improved quite a lot, though this illusion was… _how odd._

The grown man that I recognized as the victim of the permanent illusion, Lanchia if the voices were screaming his name, was sitting in the spot where Mukuro was supposed to sit. His expression showed something between regret and boredom, he has probably seen this scene for too many times already. It was kind of sad how he muttered the lines that I said in almost exactly the same tone that I used.

"_Just why are you afraid."_

"Hmm, this place is just like five years ago…" I stated to catch Lanchia's attention. The raven haired man looked up and stared right at me, though I could see that he couldn't exactly see my appearance.

"Who are you?" He asked warily and I sighed in relieve. It wasn't too late to save his sanity yet, he hasn't lost his mind yet… _but why?_

"Well… the scenery is different." I mused after looking around in the illusion and comparing the scene to the scenery in my memories… it was lighter. The smell of medicine wasn't as strong either and the screams that I heard before were softer. Less threatening than it was supposed to be.

"Kufufufu, this time it looks… fake." I chuckled when I realized that Mukuro deliberately weakened this illusion. He probably cared for this man… or at least enough to not wish to traumatize him. Which would make it easier for me to remove the illusion.

"Alright! Time to remove the illusion!" I shouted, ignoring the exclamation of the man. I strengthened my resolve and turned it into dying will flames to literally burn the illusion away. Slowly but sure, the dim scenery brightened and a mansion could be seen.

"What… happened." The man asked after recovering from the sudden brightness.

"I removed the illusion that was planted in your head." I answered. "Be glad that it was a pretty weak illusion, Muku-chan could do worse things with your mind than this. We will be seeing what was hiding underneath the illusion now."

…

The mansion was always filled with life. Many children of ages varying from seven to sixteen were usually running around and play with whatever they could play with. The elder people who lived in the grand mansion rested whenever they didn't have anything to do or played along with the children. The people here were content with their current peaceful life… or at least as peaceful as a life of a Mafioso could be.

That day, the children were talking to each other or to some of the many people who were gathered in the canteen. The cheerful chatter filled the big room and the laughs lightened the mood of anticipation.

"I have an announcement to make!" one of the older men stated, effectively silencing the chatter in the room and peaking the anticipation. Even the younger and more active children were paying attention to their boss. "As most of you know, I am getting old."

"That is not right boss!" someone laughed.

"You are as young as ages ago." Another laughed.

"Thank you, but that doesn't change the fact that I am thinking that I am getting too old to lead this Famiglia for much longer." The man smiled, earning many disagreements from his subordinates. "Silence, silence please! As you all know, I have no biological successor… which caused me to think for a while. Who is most capable of leading this family when I am gone? Who understands the fundamentals of this family the best?"

"I remember this…" The real Lanchia muttered incredulously. I looked up at the tall and confused man and tilted my head in slight amusement.

"Of course you do. The illusion was simply replacing this memory." I smiled before returning my attention to the memory.

The other Lanchia was called to his boss who announced that Lanchia became the next boss and I smiled at the scene. The understanding smiles and the proud laughter of the Famiglia members made both the Lanchia's blush in embarrassment.

"Your Famiglia is nice…"

"Thank you…" Lanchia smiled while recovering from the blush. "This is… my family." The man in the memory was obviously happy, but the man next to me was confused as well. He was probably trying to remember what happened next and I would have helped him if I didn't see whatever I was unconsciously looking for.

"…Mukuro?" I whispered when I saw the familiar hair somewhere between the crowd. I felt my legs move in the direction of the unusual hairstyle and faintly heard Lanchia following me. Before I knew it I was standing right behind the person that I haven't seen in almost six yeats and for some reasons I started to feel anxious, what if I couldn't recognize him anymore… or worse_! What if he was exactly like Daemon now?!_ But my anxiousness quickly turned into anticipation as Mukuro started to turn around.

_He grew_, that was the first thing I thought when Mukuro was turned around. The smirk on his face faintly reminded me of Daemon, but I could see the many differences between my childhood friend and my student. His eyes were still blue and red too… though in his red eye… _is that a number?! _But apart from that… he really grew taller.

Sure, it was to be expected in almost six years, but still he could be even taller than Hibari! I wasn't too sure about Yamamoto though, but Muku-chan wasn't as cuddly cute as before… not that he wasn't cute anymore, but his change proved that I missed a big part of his life. _Wh__ich is sad in a way_. And yet I couldn't hold back the goofy smile on my face. It was the same Mukuro that I remembered and he grew up just fine.

_It is Mukuro._

The Lanchia in the memory seemed to notice the teen too and approached the teen with a bright smile.

"I didn't know that you were back Mukuro." The man smiled. "How did your _quest_ go?"

"The same as always." The teen replied with a voice that I was able to recognize even after all these years. "Zero is still as untraceable as in the last five years."

"…Have you ever considered tha-"

"That Zero is just my imagination? That Zero is dead? I don't believe so, sempai, Zero has taught me stuff that could be used in reality and I don't think that Zero is the type of person who could die easily. I wouldn't even be surprised if Zero was taking over the world in the shadows even though I know that Zero isn't the kind of person to do tha-"

"Mukuro!" Lanchia interrupted the rant. "You were talking like that again…"

"Kufufu, sorry sempai." Mukuro chuckled sheepishly. "It's just that… no I haven't found them yet, but I'm not planning on giving up anytime soon."

"Rather than sempai… won't you call me boss?"

"Oya? I still don't want to be a part of the mafia." Mukuro stated with a playful smirk. "But congratulations, Lanchia-sempai."

"I should have expected that answer." The older of the two laughed. "Did you find anything interesting?"

"Well… I heard some rumors about a ghost." Mukuro frowned. "The ghost is slowly gaining fame in the underworld as an uncatchable but powerful person that people want to recruit… however I don't know why."

"I have the answer to that." Someone behind Lanchia stated. He turned around and suppressed a scowl when he saw who was talking.

"Of course you do, Birds." He said with a fake, but polite, smile.

"Oya oya, your birds got some information?"

"The ghost is the boss of the Neo Estraneo…" the old man smirked while petting one of his many yellow birds.

"Neo Estraneo?" Lanchia mused. Where did he hear that name before? Didn't his former boss talk about some kind of untraceable inventor-Famiglia that somehow managed to get their hands on a metal craftsman?

"What did you just say about… the Estraneo?" Mukuro glared at Birds. The old man smiled and tilted his head innocently, though it looked highly suspicious to Lanchia.

"They are like a rumor, you can hear about them but you can never confirm who the boss is of this Famiglia. Around five years ago they started gaining fame in the mafia, not many outsiders know about this Famiglia and no one knows where they reside… except for their allies maybe."

Mukuro's expression darkened as Birds continued his explanation and Lanchia frowned worried at that. This wasn't how Mukuro normally acts like. Why was the usual smile on his face gone? Why did Lanchia feel that he missed something important? Why did Lanchia get such a foreboding feeling?

"…Tell me about those allies." Mukuro demanded.

"Only one, really, the Vongola… or rather the future Vongola Decimo is the only known ally."

"The Vongola Decimo." Mukuro echoed darkly.

"he is in Nanimori." Birds smirked.

"In Nanimori." Mukuro nodded before walking away.

"W-wait Mukuro! Where are you going?!" Lanchia shouted while running after the surprisingly fast teen.

"To Nanimori, I have to destroy the Estraneo."

"Hold on Mukuro! This is not the solu-"

"This is the only solution!" Mukuro shouted, gaining the attention of everyone in the canteen. "Can't you see, sempai? After all that the Estraneo did to us? You can't expect me to sit around and wait until they start experimenting again!"

"Listen, Mukuro-"

"No _you_ listen, sempai! The Estraneo will most likely be looking for the escaped subject which means that they will track this location! Or worse!" Mukuro shouted before the number in his red eye changed to the kanji of six. "They could have captured Zero already."

…

"So that happened." I muttered when the memory ended.

"I remember now." Lanchia stated. "Mukuro used his skills to let the most of us who disagreed with the destruction of the Estraneo hide somewhere."

"_Neo_ Estraneo." I corrected. "Please, why does everyone forget that it is the _Neo_ Estraneo?"

"…Just who are you?" Lanchia asked me. I looked at the man and gave him a flower-smile when I saw a hint that he actually saw me. The older man blinked a few times blankly before taking a few steps back in surprise and tripping over apparently nothing.

"Before you say it, no I'm not a ghost. My name is-"

"Zero…" Lanchia whispered. "It all makes sense now. How you were able to get in my mind, how you were able to destroy the illusion in a matter of seconds… you are Mukuro's Zero! The Vongola must have taken you with them because of your skills, you taught Mukuro right?"

"Hmm… I did teach Mukuro… but the Vongola didn't know that. They do know about my skills, or at least Reborn knows, but they didn't want me to tag along with them." I confessed. "But I couldn't stay behind after I heard that Muku-chan had a gang now, right? Nice to meet you, Lanchia-san, my name is Estraneo Zero. The Neo Estraneo Primo."

"…Now I feel like Mukuro has done something really stupid because of a misunderstanding." Lanchia deadpanned.

"Rather than a misunderstanding…" I mused. "it's like that old man _wanted_ Mukuro to destroy the Neo Estraneo, like he carefully planned this all. Who is that man anyways?"

"Birds? I don't know, one day he was there and no one ever questioned his appearance so I thought that he was part of my Famiglia."

"Birds…" I muttered. Though my intuition wasn't hyper intuition I could still recognize the feeling of danger. This old man, Birds, he planned this. He knew what to say to let Mukuro go to Nanimori. He knew classified information about the alliance between the Neo Estraneo and the Vongola. He even knew that Tsuna was in Nanimori! _But how? _

_Why do I get the feeling that I've heard of this man?_

"Do you think that Birds really did plan this?" Lanchia asked.

"Hmm, I'm thinking right now. There is no way that this old man could have known classified information about both the Vongola and the Neo Estraneo… wait…" I frowned while digging in my memories.

"What is wrong, Zero?" Lanchia asked concerned when I suddenly screamed in frustration.

"How could I forget something as important as this?!"

…

Entering and leaving someone's mind has always been disorienting for me and then add the fact that I didn't know where I was to begin with… yes, I was lost and I had absolutely no idea how I could find the others or that old man.

"Midori Tanabiku~"

…

**Omake: maps**

It was Lanchia who made it possible for Mukuro to travel around in Italy, though he didn't do it willingly in the beginning. It involved a lot of guilt trips, illusions and nightmares. After a month and a few days, Lanchia couldn't handle the stress caused by the pineapple haired teen anymore and begged his boss to let the teen and his gang to travel.

The thankful smiles were almost worth the trouble he had gone through… almost. Lanchia liked his sleep, thank you very much.

Just before the band of misfits were setting out on their mission to find an imaginary friend, Lanchia gave Mukuro his map. Every time that Mukuro visited a spot in Italy, he would diligently cross the name of the place on the map. Lanchia was used to see that several towns and cities in Italy were crossed out in black… he wasn't used to see the huge red cross on one town.

Even up to now, Lanchia had no idea of why his kouhai crossed Silicy with a bright red color… or why Chikusa always became unhealthily green when he mentioned the town.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Ok... first of all please don't kill me! I promise that Mukuro and Zero will kind of meet in reality in the next chapter! Really! I guessed that, because Mukuro gave a chance to the mafia, it would be weird if he really did let Lanchia kill his Famiglia... So this chapter is kind of an explanation of what actually happened :).  
Don't worry, mysterious guest, Nagi will be appearing in the story... probably right after the Kokuyo arc is done.  
And I had written something like that but at a whole different moment and context, ****Raven-V-Blackshade... kufufufufufu.  
It seems that my last omake was popular, I liked it too XD. Anyways than****ks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out. **


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 25: revenge

The first time that Gokudera saw the yellow fluffbal of a bird, he thought that it was pretty harmless… and then it became clear that the bird was another subordinate of that Mukuro-bastard. That is why he wanted to blow up the bird when he saw it the second time, however when that time came he was kind of in a pinch because that yoyo-freak had fucking back up, damn it.

And then the yellow creature started to sing the school anthem. _The school anthem_. There was only one person crazy enough to teach an evil bird this song… So Gokudera blew up the wall instead of the bird, which revealed Hibari Kyoya all beaten and ready to bite someone to their death.

"I could have gotten out myself." Hibari stated as he casually stepped over the rubble that was once a wall… and side stepped another collapsing wall just in time.

"What-" Gokudera began, but shut up when he got a déjà vu of this situation and paled. This was _so_ supposed not to happen!

"Hmm… maybe I overdid it…" Zero sweatdropped when the cloud of dust and debris dissipated enough to see again.

"MIDGET?!" Gokudera exclaimed. What the hell was she doing here? She was supposed to stay behind!

"Hn, rabbit." Hibari grunted, making the albino girl flinch.

"You can't expect me to stand back, Hibari-san!" Zero protested to whatever the prefect meant with his grunt. "And by the way, I brought your medicine."

"You were with them byon?" the blonde subordinate asked the girl. Zero tilted her head innocently and smiled a very fake smile that became darker and darker as she noticed more and more wounds on the bodies of the males in the room.

"You can't really say that I am, since they didn't _want_ to take me with them… I came on my own, like Hibari-san over here."

"You know her, Ken?" The emotionless subordinate asked. Ken looked at the teen with the hat and nodded hesitantly.

"She freed me, Kakipi… and she seemed harmless and lost, so I gave her the directions out of the hole that we were in… Though she had some weapons stuffed in her bag-"

"Here you go Hibari-san." Zero smiled while giving the prefect the bag containing the prescription of sakura-kura. "And do you need some cure for the poison of those needles, Goku-chan? You only got the temporary version from Shamal."

"Who are you actually byon?" Ken demanded of the girl who was ignoring all the dangers she was in.

"You don't even know her name?" The guy referred as Kakipi muttered under his breath.

"Hmm, me?" Zero mused while closing her eyes. "You know me as… Zero."

…

Rokudo Mukuro was… honestly terrifying to Tsuna. The teen used mind control on both Lanchia and Fuuta to make them fight while they clearly didn't want to. How he managed to get the others to fight for him was a mystery to Tsuna, why would they follow such a cruel person?

And yet he didn't feel all that relieved when Hibari and Gokudera entered the battlefield. Not because he wasn't relieved to see that his friend and… acquaintance were safe, but because he felt like something was very, very wrong with this situation.

And Mukuro's illusions and dying will flames. Tsuna remembers this kind of skill vaguely from… and that laugh… _no way right?_

"What did you do to Ze-" Tsuna wanted to ask what Mukuro did to Zero, however he was interrupted by Hibari who suddenly dumped Gokudera on the ground and walked closer to Mukuro.

"Oya oya, one after another from the outfield? What is Chikusa doing?" Mukuro mused.

"…If you mean the spectacle freak and the animal freak, they are taking a break together." Gokudera smirked.

"I see." Mukuro sighed.

"Stop talking, pineapple herbivore. Are you ready to repent?" Hibari demanded, making Mukuro smile darkly instead of half-amused.

"What did you call me?" He asked. Tsuna looked at the blue haired teen who was so composed just a few seconds ago and wondered if this was all that was needed to throw him off. It was almost too easy.

"Hn, I'll bite you to death, pineapple herbivore." Hibari nodded before charging in and attacking the pineapple haired teen.

"Let's dispose of you first then." Mukuro smirked before charging in too. "It should be over in an instant."

However that instant was longer than he planned as Hibari successfully parried his attacks. Though Hibari's strikes didn't hit Mukuro either, he managed to stop Mukuro's trident just before it managed to hit his face.

"How long does your instant take?" Hibari taunted, making Mukuro's smirk twitch in annoyance and Tsuna frown in confusion. The prefect was a fierce fighter like always, but his movements were weird… almost awkward. Like he was fighting with the wrong weapons… but Hibari never used any other weapon than his tonfa's right? Maybe it seemed awkward because Hibari was wounded. But the weirdest thing of all was the small smile on Hibari's face that was not only pissed off but also composed and slighty proud.

"Don't take him too lightly, Mukuro." Reborn commented on the sidelines, interrupting Tsuna's thoughts. "Hibari is a lot stronger than you think. Not even with your memories of your past life's should be able to grow like how much stronger Hibari grows in every battle."

"I see…" Mukuro smirked. "_If_ he wasn't injured, the outcome would be questionable… however it is time to finish this."

"S-sakura?!" Tsuna exclaimed when he saw the flowers appear out of nowhere. _Mukuro is taking advantage of Hibari's disease!_

However, Hibari didn't collapse and attacked Mukuro instead.

"Oya?"

"What?" Tsuna frowned. Not that he wasn't happy that Hibari was able to land a hit on the other teen, but wasn't he… infected with an illness that made him weak to cherry blossoms?

"…Too naïve." Gokudera smirked as he showed a bag. "I got this from Shamal before we came, the prescription for sakura-kura." Tsuna's eyes widened in realization and looked at the prefect again who managed to land another hit on Mukuro, effectively knocking him out.

"I-it's-" Tsuna stuttered.

"It's over now." Reborn confirmed with a nod. "However, you were wonderfully useless against Mukuro."

"Let me alone!" Tsuna exclaimed before running to Hibari who looked like he was about to collapse, but before he reached him Hibari indeed collapsed. This allowed Tsuna to see how wounded and exhausted the prefect actually was. "We have to take everyone to the hospital!"

"Don't worry, Dame-Tsuna. The best medical team of the Vongola's is on their way here." Reborn smiled.

"That is good to know." Gokudera muttered while standing up and walking closer to Mukuro.

"You shouldn't move yet, Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna protested while stopping Gokudera.

"Kufufu, there is no need for a medical team… because there will be no survivors to safe." Mukuro chuckled. Tsuna looked at the teen who was unconscious just a little while ago… and almost blanked out when he saw the gun in his hands.

"Hieee?!"

"Kufufu… Arrivederci." Mukuro chuckled before aiming the gun at his own head and shooting.

"W-w-w-what…" Gokudera stuttered when he saw the scene, covering his mouth with his hands in horror. "T-this…"

"He probably thought that it would be better to die than to be captured alive." Reborn frowned, but Tsuna wasn't paying attention to his tutor. Something was very, _very_ wrong.

"Urgh…" Bianchi groaned as she tried to sit up straight.

"Bianchi?! Thank goodness, you have regained consciousness." Tsuna exclaimed in relieve, trying to ignore the weird feeling in his head.

"Could you lend me your shoulder, Gokudera?" Bianchi smiled, but the teen was still staring at the lifeless body of Mukuro in pure horror and… sadness? "…Gokudera?"

"What? O, right Bianchi-nee…" Gokudera said as he snapped out of it… partially. He approached Bianchi and stretched his hand-

"STOP GOKUDERA-KUN! DON'T GET CLOSE TO HER!" Tsuna shouted, startling both Gokudera and Bianchi.

"What is wrong?" Bianchi smiled.

"N-nothing." Tsuna answered hesitantly, not sure why he shouted that.

"Don't worry about me, Tsuna, my wounds aren't that bad." Gokudera smiled before helping Bianchi up… only to get stabbed. "What?"

…

_It was possession_, Tsuna mused when he was shot by the bullet that Leon produced. That was the cause of the weird feeling that he got… it was too late now. He was going to die… but was that really alright?

_Wait… is that mom… and Hana?_ Tsuna asked himself when he saw his mother and the girl. And why were they badmouthing him… no why could Tsuna hear them badmouthing him?

"It seems to be the effect of the bullet." Reborn answered his silent question. "What you are hearing right now are the rebukes from everyone in real time."

_Rebukes? At a time like this?_ Tuna sweatdropped while listening to rebukes that were somehow encouraging… and then after Reborn was Zero.

"…Idiots. Once I'm done with them, they'll wish that they never let me behind." The girl scowled, though it looked more like a pout to Tsuna… _wait, why does the background look so familiar and why is she… crying? _"They'd better survive this, who is going to protect the others otherwise?" The albino girl huffed before wiping her tears away, standing up and walking away.

"Z-Zero…" Tsuna muttered. Why was she crying while badmouthing him? But what she said… yes, he should better survive this. To protect his friends. To protect his family. "Mukuro, I will defeat you… even if I'm dying, I'm not giving up!"

"Kufufu, you look less fired up than before." The possessed Chikusa chuckled. "What do you think that you can do? …wait."

"Why can't they move?" The possessed Bianchi asked. She looked at the unmoving bodies of Gokudera, Chikusa, Ken and Hibari before she looked back at Tsuna again. "What did you do?"

But Tsuna didn't answer, he gently chopped Bianchi unconscious and put her on the floor before facing Reborn.

"Reborn, you look after them." Tsuna stated. "Show yourself, Mukuro. You are still alive aren't you?"

Mukuro chuckled as he stood up in his original body and smirked at Tsuna.

"Seems like you figured it out… however that is not going to help you. I have one more skill that I haven't shown you yet, remember?" he smirked.

"The fifth path, the state of the humans." Reborn answered.

"It is my most dangerous skill." Mukuro stated.

"But even that skill won't save you, Muku-chan." Gokudera scowled.

…

I wasn't really angry… nope I was downright pissed off. _Pissed off._

I didn't know _why _I chose to attack him, maybe because of how he treated his friends or my friends or maybe because of the bad state that Fuuta was in, but as the deceiving mist I did whatever I could do best. Deceive the enemy with illusions. Yes, I was aware that Birds was an urgent matter... However, by harming innocent people like Lanchia and Fuuta because Mukuro didn't do his research made me angry enough to attack him. I snapped, which was pretty rare.

It was the _Neo _Estraneo, not the Estraneo damn it!

And then, Mukuro dared to commit suicide.

I don't care if he came back afterwards, he chose to give up his life... and for what reason? Destroying a Famiglia that was possibly allied to his most hated people? Because of a damned rumor? _Seriously Muku-chan? I taught you better than that! _

And if he really did remember his past life's like Renato implied, he should have known better.

_He should have known how precious life is._

Not even his fifth skill should be able to save him from his fate now.

"…Muku-chan?" Mukuro frowned at Gokudera.

"Kufufufu, I would like to say that it is nice to see you again, Muku-chan… however." I began as I walked in the room and dissolved the illusions that I put up. "You should know that I am very, very pissed off now."

"Hieee?! Zero?!" Tsuna exclaimed, slipping out of his hyper dying mode.

"Zero, you promised to-"

"Not to follow you, Reborn. And I didn't… I followed the tracker on Bianchi-nee." I stated angrily when the illusions of Gokudera, Hibari, Chikusa and Ken were completely dissolved.

"Y-you." Mukuro looked at me with shocked wide eyes. "…Zero? But... how?"

"Hello Muku-chan…" I smiled wryly. "I missed you…"

"Muku-chan…" Reborn muttered with a deep frown. I saw his expression freeze as the realization dawned on the hitman. "_He_ is your student, Zero?"

"Student?!" Tsuna shrieked. "How is that even possible, she is only eleven years old!"

"Because I am like Muku-chan… I am reincarnated!" I hissed, completely forgetting about my personal rules in my anger. Mukuro's eyes widened even more and he started staring at me, but I ignored that and opened my bag to look for the biggest weapon that was somehow stuffed in it. "Now, stand still so I can hit you…"

"Kufufu… that is an illusion, right?" Mukuro chuckled nervously and snapped out of a shocked daze when he saw the battle axe that shouldn't fit in my bag. I simply ignored his question and swung my axe down at the pineapple haired teen, who dodged it because of pure instinct. When the blade hit the ground, where Mukuro was standing on not too long ago, the impact caused us all to be blown away.

Reborn and I managed to land gracefully on our feet, Mukuro managed to land on his feet as well albeit less graceful but Tsuna fell on the ground rather painfully.

"Hieee?! What was that?!"

"Hmm… my Famiglia made it stronger than I initially thought." I sweatdropped. The impact and shock cleared most of my anger, though definitely not all of it, and the utterly shocked expressions on the males in the room dissolved my will to maim Mukuro.

"Mukuro-san!" I heard Ken exclaim. I turned around to see Ken and the teen with the hat staring at us with wide eyes and wondered if I accidentally lifted the illusion that restrained them before. The male, along with Chikusa, ran in front of Mukuro and growled at me. "Why are you attacking Mukuro if you are Zero?"

"Hmm… I was angry?" I answered hesitantly, now my anger was mostly settled down I could see how violent my actions actually were…

"Being angry does not justify your actions." Chikusa stated with his monotone voice.

"I know…" I sighed before returning my attention to Mukuro. "Nice to see you again, Muku-chan… I am Zero… Estraneo Zero."

"Estraneo?" Chikusa asked while grabbing his yoyo's.

"Let me finish first!" I exclaimed. "The Neo Estraneo, my Famiglia is _Neo_ Estraneo not Estraneo!" I explained but Chikusa and Ken didn't look like they believed me.

"Kufufu calm down, Chikusa, Ken. She is like us." Mukuro chuckled as he walked past his subordinates. "I missed you too, Zero."

"Kufufufu, I missed you..." I smiled once again.

"That is all?" Mukuro asked while raising an eyebrow. I laughed and spread my arms in response, already expecting the hug. What up didn't expect was that Mukuro literally lifted me up while hugging me.

"I finally found you Zero..."

...

**Omake: acting**

"Stop talking, pineapple herbivore. Are you ready to repent?" I made the Hibari-illusion demand, knowing that it would throw Mukuro off.

Acting like the skylark was easier than I thought, I just had to imitate Alaude since Hibari was so much like him. Fighting like Hibari however… I remembered the way that Alaude fought with his handcuffs, which was inevitable since I've been a victim so many times, but tonfa's were quite different from handcuffs.

Anyone could see that my way of fighting with tonfa's was different from how Hibari fought, but he was supposed to be injured so I hoped that no one would suspect the almost awkward movements.

Though I didn't really have the time to think about this kind of things, especially since Mukuro was faster than I hoped that he was, wasn't an illusionist supposed to be physically weak? But then again, Daemon wasn't weak either.

_He was slower than Mukuro though_, I thought with a mix of pride and exhaustion as I made the Hibari-illusion evading the trident once more. If this was going to keep on going I wouldn't be able to parry anymore, considering that holding up six real illusions at the same time was mentally straining me.

Four to impersonate Hibari, Gokudera, Ken and Chikusa and two to restrain the latter two. I was lucky that Hibari and Gokudera were blissfully unconscious because of their medicines. I never knew that permanent cures had this kind of side effects, but it certainly helped me out since six illusions were already more than enough.

"How long does your instant take?" I made the Hibari-illusion taunt, hoping that it would buy me some time.

"Don't take him too lightly, Mukuro." Reborn commented on the sidelines and I sweatdropped. It was a miracle that my brother hasn't figured out that it was an illusion, but I was glad for that. Otherwise Mukuro wasn't the only one that I would be fighting now… or the Hibari-illusion would be.

"Hibari is a lot stronger than you think, not even with your memories of your past life's you should be able to grow like how much stronger Hibari grows in every battle." Reborn continued and I blanked out for a second. What did Reborn say about memories of past life's? _Mukuro is reincarnated like me?_ But the teen didn't give me a chance to ask.

"I see…" Mukuro smirked as he summoned some of his flames. "_If_ he wasn't injured, the outcome would be questionable… however it is time to finish this." I raised an eyebrow in confusion when the cherry blossoms appeared, but I didn't let this chance slide and attacked Mukuro.

"Oya?"

"What?" Tsuna frowned and I could hit myself for forgetting something so important. Hibari was supposed to be infected with sakura-kura!

"…Too naïve." I made the illusionary Gokudera smirk as it showed a bag and hoped that they would buy this poor excuse. "I got this from Shamal before we came, the prescription for sakura-kura."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**This chapter was difficult to write and I had two versions of the battle between Mukuro and Zero's illusions. In Zero's version were more explanations but it was depressing in the end, so I chose the other version and then it suddenly became confusing… so I decided to put Zero's version without the depressing part in the omake to explain the situation. I wonder when other became clear that Gokudera was an Illusion... But alright, this concludes the Kokuyo arc... _NOT! _One more chapter until it is done (if nothing weird happens to whatever I have planned /written)! I mean, Mukuro wasn't the only one who heard about the reincarnation and not-human matter... and then there is Birds.**

**I'm updating with my phone this time because this chapter was already done (resulting in an early update)... but access to my computer is impossible right now, so there will be replies to the reviews until I'm called away (I am supposed to be talking with family right now). **

**So to n1ghtdr34m3r and Stellar Nymph, I will write an extra chapter about her first meetings with the guardians of the first generation :). I can already reveal her name for now, but more about that life will be explained in the chapter before the extra chapter. Anyways, her name was Alexis Chevalier.**

**You guessed wrong Grizzmon, though that would be interesting XD.**

**Damn I'm being called away now, anyways thanks for the 150+ favs and reviews. As usual, the Sinclairs.**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 9**

Renato was very aware that his little sister was popular at school, but he never expected her to be so popular with children… rather, he didn't know why a four years old was helping out at the daycare center of their school at Friday's.

The daycare only excisted because some of the teachers were single and didn't trust normal babysitters, the life of a Mafioso was complicated, so it somehow ended up with students looking after the children. Including the four years old Renata.

"…What are you doing?" Renato whispered to his little sister. Renata looked amused at him and put down the storybook she just finished.

"Reading a bedtime story." She chuckled softly.

"I know." Renato replied. He was there to listen and admitted that she was surprisingly good at telling stories, but that wasn't the question he wanted to ask. "I meant why are you helping out at the daycare center while you are only four?"

"Kufufufu, I'm looking after this place until my sempai has found the one who had to look after the children today. He's gone for two hours already." The younger Sinclair chuckled while remembering her orders from her blue haired sempai.

"…They left a four years old in charge?" Renato asked incredulusly, almost forgetting about the sleeping children.

"Shh, don't worry Renato. They know that I'm capable… but they are taking long."

"How does the one responsible look like, I could look for him." Renato sighed. He still wanted to go home with his little sister today.

"Hmm… he is blonde… and likes to walk around in clothes that resemble construction worker clothes." Renata mused.

"Renata… there are a lot of people like that here." Renato sighed while already feeling sorry for the future children of this guy. "…I will look after the children instead, you go and look for that guy."

"…Are you sure, Reborn?" Renata frowned worried. "I know that you… dislike the company of children."

"They are sleeping, Renata, I should be able to handle sleeping children." The elder Sinclair smirked, earning an amused chuckle from his sister.

"Sure, I'll be back soon…" She smiled before leaving the daycare to look for her spartan sempai. Renato sighed in slight annoyance, he wanted to go home already, and prepared to look after the sleeping children. But as soon as the door closed behind Renata, the eyes of all the formerly sleeping children opened and stared at him.

…

"How was the 'taking care of the… children'?" Renata asked when she entered the daycare center with her sempais in tow.

"Chaos." Renato answered while trying to pry of the toddlers that were trying to climb up his legs. "It was chaos, Renata."

Back then, Renato couldn't have imagined Renata looking after the daycare center more often than not. He couldn't have imagined being forced to look after that place until they found the slacking sempai as well… and every time Renata would ask the same question that Renato would answer with the same word.

"Chaos."

**Omake 3: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 10**

Being able to spend more time with his sister because of school was a blessing because he could spend more time with her without that attention-grabbing cat. But school was school and it had inevitably homework to give the students, or worse a project that he had to do with a partner. Now Renato would have been able to finish any project quite easily without a partner… if the project wasn't something like writing an essay about the Vongola first generation.

The information about the Vongola was already difficult to find, unless you hacked into the Vongola database of course, and because the project was due Friday Renato couldn't ask his father about the Vongola.

And of course his teacher had to make it worse by pairing him up with the biggest moron in his year.

"Are you listening to me, kora?"

"No." Renato replied to his blonde partner for the project who somehow was able to worm into his dorm room. Even only after five minutes he was already regretting not killing the teacher for pairing him up with this moron.

"I was saying that the first boss of the Vongola must have loved seafood and tha-" The moron began, but Renato paid more attention to the knocking on the door than the useless speech. Ignoring whatever the blonde had to say, Renato stood up from his seat and walked to the door.

"Hello Reborn." Renata smiled when the door was opened.

"Chaos, Renata… What are you doing here?" Renato asked, surprised by his sister's sudden appearance.

"Hmm, I just wanted to ask for some help for homework." Renata confessed sheepishly. "I don't understand this question from philosophy…"

"Come in." Renato smiled amused. It was rare that his little sister asked him questions about her homework.

"Hmm… who is that, brother?"

"You had a little sister, kora?"

"Ignore that idiot, we are paired up for a history project." Renato stated bluntly. Renata looked at her brother and smiled brightly when she heard that.

"History?" She asked.

"…History." Renato confirmed after remembering something really important. His little sister's favorite and best subject was history. "The history of the first generation of the Vongola, what do you know about them?"

At this, Renata beamed and started telling many stories that almost sounded unreal to both Renato and his partner. Like a story about the first boss, Giotto, who once had to cross-dress to infiltrate a party in which his lightening guardian was held captive.

Or a story about the first meeting between the cloud and mist guardians that went very wrong because the mist guardian sang alouette… what Renato didn't understand was why anyone would be angry about someone who sings a French children's song.

And then a story about the storm and rain guardian who once had to look after the sun guardian's church while he was gone… and about the poor tutor who had to pay for the damages afterwards.

Renato didn't know what was weirder, the fact that everything that his sister told him was historically seen correct according to his teacher… or the question about her homework that Renata asked.

"What is the function of a rubber duck?"

**Why is life so busy in the vacations? Anyways, thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 26: the Estraneo

"...What do you mean with that?" Tsuna asked Mukuro after I was put down. I looked at the confused teen and my, slightly bloodthirsty, babyfied brother and sighed. Tsuna was probably asking about the 'just like us' comment. I couldn't leave it as it is now, if I didn't explain it now, everything will be more complicated later on...

"He means that we were from the same Famiglia." I smiled wryly.

"…The Famiglia that experimented on you?" Tsuna asked with horror and I nodded in response.

"Y-you too?" Ken stuttered. I turned around and nodded again. "Why didn't we see you before byon?"

"I was in another part of the lab because I had to be under constant observation." I stated and when I realized that they didn't believe that I was experimented on yet, I sighed and raised my bangs... revealing the scar that I've been hiding. Now I could see the realization dawn on Ken and Chikusa when they saw that the scar was too clean to be a result of an accident.

"Which is why I couldn't find you." Mukuro realized.

"Indeed."

"Why were you in another part of the lab then?" Chikusa asked, still a bit suspicious. I looked at Reborn, who knew about this matter and wondered if I should tell them everything. My brother nodded at my silent question and I sighed both in relief and anxiousness. It isn't exactly easy to tell the world that I wasn't...

"Because… I'm not exactly what you would call… human." I began. "Almost sixteen years ago, the mad scientists started on experiments that resulted in… well, my creation. I was literally born from an experiment and after five whole years of developing I 'woke up'."

"You aren't… human?" Tsuna asked me incredulously.

"She is as human as you are." Reborn stated as he hit Tsuna. "You should have known that, dame-Tsuna."

"Kufufufu, the only reason why I am still as human as this is because I was reincarnated as well." I chuckled at their antics. "But you know that already, right brother?"

"I do." Reborn smirked. "Don't think that you can escape your punishment by distracting me with memories, Renata."

"Aw… I could at least try." I pouted.

"B-brother… no w-way right?" Tsuna stuttered and Reborn smirked at him.

"Zero is indeed my sister, dame-Tsuna. Think twice before you make a move on her."

"Hieee?!"

…

Mukuro has _tried_ to imagine how his first meeting with Zero would be and how Zero would look like, but not even he could have imagined how the reality turned out to be. And reality had some twisted humor that left him dumbfounded.

First of all, Zero was a girl though that wasn't the unbelievable part. Zero was a young girl. _A girl with an age that would make her a newborn when she met him and taught him. _It should have been impossible, but the second matter explained a lot and if not everything.

Secondly, she was just like him. Reincarnated, like him. Experimented on by the Estraneo, like him. Too old for her true age, like him. _Just like him._

Thirdly, she was cute. Maybe even beautiful, though that was difficult to say because she was still young and... well, cute. Mukuro could see that she was going to become beautiful though, but for now especially her eyes were beautiful. Her eyes, especially now her anger has dimmed, were a beautiful shade of purple that radiated knowledge. And her voice… though they weren't exactly the words that appeared in his head, it was undoubtedly Zero. _My_ _Zero._

As fourth, she was not 'human' even though Mukuro could state that she was more human than him... Oh well, they could always be the outcasts of humanity together.

And lastly and the most unbelievable part of all, though the fact that Zero wasn't human was a close second, Zero was a part of the Neo Estraneo. The Neo _Estraneo,_ the most cruel Famiglia in mafia history! The one they managed to escape all those years ago! _The Famiglia that was only reason why I am here and attacking the Vongola for extracting information about their hideout!_

"Why are you part of the Neo Estraneo?" Mukuro muttered, not visibly winching at the almost accusing tone that escaped his lips. Zero looked in his eyes as she approached him and smiled… fondly?

"They aren't the _Estraneo_, Muku-chan. They are the _Neo_ Estraneo, the Famiglia that was created because I didn't want to involve the civilians due the Estraneo were looking for me… but it quickly escalated and my Famiglia became one of the most famous inventors Famiglia's amongst the mafia." She explained sheepishly. "Now we are talking about the Estraneo… where is Birds?"

"Why do you want to know where the old man is byon?" Ken asked. Mukuro teared his eyes of his teacher and looked at the confusion on the others in the room.

"Well... because-" Zero began, but she turned around before she could finish her sentence, catching a knife with her hands before it could hit Mukuro.

"Because I am the boss." Birds smirked.

…

"Kufufufu, I'm glad that my reflexes weren't too rusty." I chuckled mirthlessly as I dropped the knife that I caught on the ground. I stretched my bloody hand and watched the wound close as fast as I was used to and sighed in relieve that I was able to catch It before it could hit Mukuro. The knife was probably poisoned, I could feel my body getting rid of it already.

"Subject 00-"

"It's Zero now, Estraneo Nono." I interrupted the Estraneo boss while I tried to ignore the slightly stinging feeling in my hand.

"Sure… _Zero_. Or should I call you Neo Estraneo Primo?" Birds smirked. "I didn't expect you to remember me."

"Both uncle Chris and uncle Seth told me who you were, I didn't remember you." I corrected. "Honestly, I thought that you were one of those mad scientists."

"No, I'm not... though I did get profits from my scientists. Like those genetic modified birds which are smarter and able to follow my commands without trouble... and you, though you managed to get away. Imagine my surprise when I saw you on the screen, walking with those cute girls. Living a life that the bloody twins couldn't live."

"What are you talking about?" Mukuro asked calmly while restraining a furious Ken with one hand, though I bet that he was thinking of several ways to kill or torture the man. The way that he was holding his trident in his other hand could be solid proof for that. Chikusa, who was staring calmly while clutching his yoyo's, was probably thinking of that too…

"Ah subject 69, another one of our masterpieces. I admit that you were a nice ticket to immortality too, but Zero was better. The notes we found about reincarnations and possesions being a good way of immortality were right about it needing a suitable body and mentality, you were lucky that you survived the experiment. Good job on baiting my Zero, I honestly expected it to be more difficult than this like with the Momokyokai. But since you succeeded getting her here, I shall answer your question. Zero is the result of the same experiment that created those twins…" Birds answered as calmly as Mukuro asked the question.

"Hieee?! The bloody twins?"

"The bloody twins?" I mused while wiping the blood off my healed hand. I was pretty sure that I was the only subject of my experiment that actually managed to live… "Hmm I see, you attempted to recreate me, but why would you want to do that? I'm just useful for the medical world, not for destruction or other mafia-related needs..."

"Did you really think that you were_ only _useful for the medical world, subj-Zero?" Birds laughed. "No, you are the first step to immortality! Imagine a body that returns to its original state, no matter how many wounds it has or how badly it gets poisoned! You, my dearest subject, are my ticket to everlasting youth and life! Sadly enough we missed some genes and files to recreate a body like yours, which means that we need you."

I scowled at the old man when he started to cackle madly. I should have known that my existence in this life wouldn't be as harmless as I hoped it to be... I mean _immortality, _only madmen would look for eternal loneliness.

"Funny, but I don't need you." I smiled a fake smile while reaching for a weapon in my bag, but Birds laughed at that.

"I assure you that you do need me." He laughed, enjoying the confusion on my face. "You see… you'll die if you don't come with me." He stated before cackling madly again. I could only blink blankly and frown at whatever he said. For all I knew, I was perfectly healthy… maybe too healthy even.

"…Is that because of lack of certain DNA-codes?" I asked after thinking for a little while. I already knew that I missed those, I wasn't Verde's favorite test-person for no reason. When he found out that my body returned to its original state after getting wounded, he started researching on me. It wasn't the most pleasant time for my uncles, but then Verde found out that I missed some DNA codes that allowed me to live through puberty...

When puberty would come, my body would want to change and yet return to its original state. This would mean that, thanks to that conflict, my body will tire itself out and in the end probably cause my death.

Luckily enough, my Famiglia was stuffed with geniuses and with their and Verde's help It was like the problem never existed to begin with... so I would have the joy of going through puberty once again.

"How did you kno-" Birds began furiously while he suddenly charged at me, but he was literally blown away before he could either reach me or finish his question.

**BOOOOOM**

The old man disappeared in frightening familiar green smoke and I began to fear what would happen next. I slowly turned around in horror when I recognized the killing intend and honestly wanted to run, but I knew that it would only be procrastination...

"Zero-sama, please explain why you are here…"

"H-hello uncle Seth, uncle Chris." I greeted the furious men nervously.

"We are lucky that we have put a tracker in your bag, Zero." Chris stated as he walked in the room too. "You have a lot to explain…"

"C-can we h-help the wounded first?" I asked weakly.

"The medical team of the Vongola has arrived already, Zero. There is no need for us to help them…"

"What about the people here? L-like Fuuta?"

"They will survive until that team arrives, Zero-sama, take that from me… except if you want to safe the man that employed us before as well." Seth sighed. I looked at the man who was blown up by Seth and almost choked on air when I saw the cloaked and bandaged men appear out of nowhere.

It was a terrifying scene that I hoped to never see again.

"W-who are they?" Tsuna asked when he noticed the men as well. By now, these bandaged men have collared Birds.

"The Vindice." Reborn explained. "They are the enforcer of the commandments in the mafia world and they trial those who cannot be trialed by the law."

"What are you doing?!" I shouted when the Vindice moved to capture Mukuro and his… _gang_ as well. Before I knew it I was already standing between them and the Vindice.

"Our orders are to capture the remaining members of the Estraneo, who committed many grave crimes including human trafficking and the production of the possessionbullet. And these youths are part of the Estraneo as well, so get out of the way Neo Estraneo Primo or we will have to capture you too." One of the officers stated before approaching the teens and, because I was standing between them and the Vindice officers, me.

"I have to disagree with that." I muttered as I refused to step away.

"Zero!" Chris shouted in surprise.

"…Zero-sama." Seth muttered with wide eyes when I shook my head.

"They have done nothing wrong." I frowned.

"According to the files they are-"

"The files are wrong!" I shouted, shocking everyone who knew of the Vindice since lying to the Vindice was practically seen synonymous to suicide, just like stealing from the Vindice. However I had to safe the... _gang _somehow, they were only deceived by the old man!

What could change the minds of the Vindice? What could I say to safe them? Isn't there anything that I could say to convince them that the… _gang _didn't belong to the Estraneo. What could I do, what would Renato do?

...wait, Renato?

_That's it!_

"Because they are already recruited by the Vongola!" I shouted almost victoriously. I almost mentally cheered when I saw the Vindice officers freeze in their tracks and realize that I wasn't lying.

"…Very well then. I expect to hear nothing about lawbreaking from them or else…" One of the Vindice officers threatened before they disappeared with Birds. When they were gone I allowed myself drop to the ground and sigh in relieve. _The Vindice is as scary as always…_

"…Oya? What were you talking about, Zero?" Mukuro asked after a long moment of shocked silence.

"Reborn has unofficially recruited you already since you are my student and since the others are part of your… _gang_ they are recruited as well." I smiled, relieved that it was over now. Mukuro blinked blankly before a small smile appeared on his face, though that smile grew with the second until Mukuro started giggli- chuckling.

"Kufufu... Kuhahahaha." Mukuro started to cackle, making me worried for his mentality. "You just had to throw me in a mafia life to make sure that I wouldn't get caught, right?"

"...are you mad?" I asked hesitantly. I still remember that one wish he got that consisted of the destruction of the mafia after all...

"If I had to choose between a life in prison or a life in the mafia... I would have chosen prison, but since it's the Vindice... even a life as a Mafioso would be better." Mukuro smirked

"Congratulations dame-Tsuna it seems that you have a new subordinate." Reborn smirked, earning a glare from Mukuro.

"Oya oya? Don't think that I'll let that slide, arcobaleno, even if you were Zero's brother."

"Are" Reborn corrected as he started a glaring competition with Mukuro with a terrified and confused Tsuna in the middle.

"...Sorry for condemning you to this fate, Tsuna." I sweatdropped.

"I-it's fine, Zero. My life was already condemned before this." Tsuna smiled wryly. "It is over now, right?"

""Not yet…"" My uncles and Reborn stated and I started to regret not taking a hint fron the 'death card' and not having written a will yet.

...

**Omake: now I can see it...**

Tsuna was fidgeting nervously in his hospital room despite his muscle pains. Not only because he was in that shady room again, he remembered what Zero said about a similar room after all, but mostly because of his roommate.

Rokudo Mukuro.

The said teen was forced in this room by Zero, whose fate was still uncertain, and glaring at Tsuna like_ he_ was the one who tried to take over his body and not the other way around.

"What is your relationship with Zero?" Mukuro asked after a small five minutes that felt like ages to Tsuna.

"Z-zero? We are friends?" Tsuna answered hesitantly. He wasn't entirely sure about his relationship with Zero. She was at least a friend, one who despite her weirdness was pleasant to be around with...

Talking about Zero...

She was even weirder than Tsuna initially thought. Reincarnated, Mukuro's teacher, not even human and the weirdest of all...

_Reborn's sister._

Tsuna simply couldn't imagine Zero being the sister of that demon-tutor. How could she have been his sister anyways? Reborn is just a baby! A baby that is the best hitman in the world, but still a baby!

"Accept the fact already, dame-Tsuna." Reborn stated as he hit him, appearing out of nowhere like usual. "She is my sister through and trough."

"_Was._" Mukuro supplied.

"_Is._" Reborn retorted and Tsuna trembled in fear. He didn't like being in the middle of this fight... again. _Someone, please safe me_.

"Excuse me?" a nurse asked, causing Tsuna to cheer inwardly. His prayers have been answered! "You have visitors."

And Tsuna returned to his previous state. Very fearful. Did fate hate him or did fate simply love to torture him? It must enjoy seeing him suffer because the entire Kokuyo gang was visiting!

"Who did this to you, Mukuro-chan?" The girl that Bianchi defeated with her poison cooking, M.M., asked. Tsuna sweatdropped at that, Mukuro was barely hurt. He only had a few bruises from his fight with Hibari... no wait, that was Zero...

"We told you already byon. It was Zero." Ken growled.

"Zero?! He has to be punished for hurting Mukuro-chan like that!" M.M. shouted, somehow offended by the blank looks that she received.

"Kufufufu, well... sorry?" a familiar voice chuckled hesitantly. "I was kind of angry back then..."

"Hieee?! Since when were you here, Zero?" Tsuna shrieked when he noticed the girl sitting on the chair that was definitely empty a few seconds ago.

"Since Reborn hit you." Zero smiled.

"...You are a girl?" M.M. asked.

"Yes." Zero nodded.

"I thought that you were a guy..." The red haired girl muttered shocked before recovering from the shock and pointing accusingly at Zero. "Mukuro-chan was looking for a _girl _all this time?!"

"Kufufu, what are you doing here Zero? Weren't you recovering from your punishment?" Mukuro asked while ignoring M.M.'s question.

"Please, don't remind me of that." Zero shivered in horror. "And can't I visit a friend and my dear student after visiting an innocent victim and saving another innocent victim from permanent brain damage?"

"You are definitely here for something." Mukuro deadpanned.

"Kufufufu indeed. You guys are going to live with me, there is always space in one of the basements." Zero laughed. Reborn and Tsuna stared blankly at the albino girl before voicing their opinions about this matter.

"Hieee?!"

"No way in hell, Zero."

"Why would we?" M.M. asked, offended by something of which Tsuna was glad that he didn't know what it was. "There is no way that I'm going to live with my rival for Mukuro's attention!"

_And there it is,_ Tsuna sighed. He definitely didn't need to know that someone who wanted to take over his body was more popular than him...

"Hmm, how about we settle this with a game?" Zero mused before pointing at Mukuro. "If I win, you and your..._gang, _there must be a better word for this, and your band of misfits will live with me."

"What will we get when you lose?" M.M. asked. Chikusa and Ken looked at each other before nodding since they actually liked the rundown amusement park.

"You can stay in Kokuyo health land and I will show you how Mukuro looked like when we first met... which was when he was five years old." Zero smiled, already knowing that the others simply _had _to agree now.

""We will play."" M.M., Chikusa, Ken and Reborn agreed eagerly.

"Though when I win they will not live with you, Zero." Reborn added.

"Oya, why are you deciding without me?"

"Kufufufu, sure Reborn. And because you didn't react in time, Muku-chan." Zero laughed before looking around in her bag... of which Tsuna suspected that it was like Lambo's hair that could hold everything. He had seen the small girl pulling a battle axe out of it after all... it kind of made Tsuna curious about what she was going to pull out next.

A deck of cards.

""I refuse to play."" Both Mukuro and Reborn stated immediately.

"Aw... what about you, Tsuna?"

"No." Tsuna answered out of instincts. Something in the back of his head told Tsuna that he did not want to get involved in this...

...

He was right about trusting that voice and Tsuna couldn't be more glad that he reacted in the right way ever since Zero put down her fifth royal straight flush with the same innocent smile with a sadistic edge.

He could see that she was related to Reborn now... though he had to admit that this smile suited Zero. Despite the sadistic edge, the smile lit up her eyes and made her look even more beautifu- nononono_nononono! _He did _not _just think that his eleven years old friend was beautiful!

"Snap out of it, dame-Tsuna." Reborn said as he kicked Tsuna in the face. "And stop using your mafia-seduction unconsciously, Zero."

"Don't tell me that I was doing it again..."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Well this concludes the Kokuyo arc, one more official chapter before the variable arc and probably the extra chapter as well. Well I hope that this chapter explains why Birds was in this story to begin with... and why the Momokyokai tried to kidnap Zero before. And the Vindice had to appear one way or inevitable. Don't be too mad, but halfway this chapter I forgot about Fuuta and Lanchia D:. Alright on to the responses on the reviews!**

**To n1ghtdr34m3r, thank you. And I've been counting her past life's... a small thirteen times? her life with the first generation was her first life (I finally finished plotting her backstory).**

**And indeed, ddmahan922, but I guess that connections are needed if you are a Mafia boss.**

**Thank you for your compliments Raven-V-Blackshade, for your previous review also. I didn't have the tome to respond last time hahaha...**

**And then your response, Evilshallprevail. I will try to give an explanation, but it will contain spoilers for the last few arcs of the manga series. Here I go: if you have read the last arc of the manga series, then you'll see that Kawahira, Bermuda and Yuni aren't human and by extension Luce. I believe that they are kind of immortal and that they grow up faster than normal humans, mostly because Yuni looks like her TYL version on the past, even though Aria was just gone. This could also be the reason why Yuni was kept hidden from the giglio nero until Aria died. The reason why the other arcobaleno didn't suspect Luce being... not human was because they thought that the arcobaleno curse forced them to their most suitable age for being an arcobaleno and that the age for Yuni and Aria was older than theirs. Zero is now in her thirteenth life, so her life as Renata was her twelfth life which was eleven lifetimes after her life with the first generation. I hope that this answers your question and if not, don't be afraid to ask again:).**

**To everyone who answered the rubber duck question: thank you for doing my homework... just kidding XD.**

**Honestly? I never expected more than a few readers... so thank you for the 200+ follows, it means a lot to me. Let's throw another omake in here XD!**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 11**

Renato knew that this day would come... but didn't know that it would happen so soon. Or rather, he didn't know that it would have happened while Renata was even younger than four!

"Mother... why can Renata do mafia-seduction?" The hitman in training asked his mother.

"That is a good question." Serena Sinclair mused. "I never taught her... but she is a natural!"

Renato had to sigh at that. His mother wasn't lying, he could tell whenever she was, but where didn't she learn this then? Their father wasn't the type to teach his only daughter how to seduce... But then again, she is his successor and mafia-seduction was useful as a weapons dealer.

And Serena Sinclair would have taught her anyways...

"Here you go, Renata."

"Hmm, but this is more than I asked for."

"Just take it Renata, this is the least that I can do for you since you got rid of that cockroach plague."

"Kufufufu, if that is the case... thank you signore" Renata smiled before going to another stand and doing exactly the same thing there.

"At least tell me why Renata is using mafia-seduction on the market vendors..." Renato deadpanned.

"Well... she always gets huge discounts like this and it's not like she is aware of her charms. Did you know that she is using mafia-seduction unconsciously?" Serena smiled brightly at her son before returning her attention to her daughter. "Besides, she is even better in this than you..."

"...Sure, mother."

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 27: promises

"Thirteen…"

"Are you alright, Muku-chan? You have been repeating that for five minutes already…" I sweatdropped when the pineapple haired teen in my illusionary cliff muttered that number again. After I told him that I've been reborn thirteen times already he suddenly turned into this shocked state… was it really that unbelievable?

"You have been born _thirteen_ times?" Mukuro asked incredulously again.

"Well…" I began hesitantly. "Yes? Though I've lived life's that ended while I was quite young…"

"That is… do you know what the trigger was for your situation?" Mukuro asked me.

"…Hmm. No, but it isn't anything special."

"Not anything special? Thirteen life's, Zero. That is more than twice life's my six life's!"

"At least you have inherited some useful skills that will help you as a Mafioso." I tried to get him out of that shocked state. "The only skills I inherited are my skills in cooking, card games, illusions and for some unexplainable reason my ballroom dancing skills."

"…Right." Mukuro smirked. "My skills are more useful in combat I guess… does that mean that I should be able to defeat you in a fight?"

"Hmm, nope." I smirked back. "I've more battle experience."

"Oya? What kind of life's did you live to get that experience?"

"A life as the daughter of the best hitwoman of the world and the sister of current best hitman of the world… And life as the tutor of the first generation of the Vongola."

"…Repeat that last one please." Mukuro deadpanned. "I know about the arcobaleno, but the teacher of the first generation of the most powerful Famiglia with the bloodiest history after the Estraneo?"

"Rather than a teacher, I was a tutor. And the Vongola isn't _that_ bad, I mean look at Tsuna!"

"But he is a wimp."

"…Alright, he might be a bit cowardly but he does resemble the first boss of the Vongola!"

"Then it's a miracle that the Vongola still exists."

"You have to agree that he is a good person. I mean, you shared the same hospital room for three days right?"

"He is an interesting person." Mukuro nodded hesitantly after thinking for a while. "He is different... totally unsuited for being a Mafioso."

"…You are saying exactly the same thing as Daemon about Giotto." I sweatdropped.

"Oya oya, you called me Daemon the first time we met as well… who is that guy?"

"He was my childhood friend and self-proclaimed love-"

"He was your what?!"

"Let me finish Muku-chan! He was my self-proclaimed love _rival_!" I blushed. There is no way in hell that Daemon was anything like that to me! No way in hell! _No way in hell!_

"…How did that happen?" Mukuro asked almost curiosly with a hint of, oddly enough, relieve.

"He didn't know that it was me." I sighed before giving Mukuro a summary of my first life. "I was… almost killed by my relatives back then. They threw me in the lake and left me to die, however I was saved by the one who would become my teacher later on. I could live thanks to him, but because my family didn't know that I was still alive I had to disguise myself… so my teacher made me disguise myself as a _guy, _both for my safety and as a training for my illusions. And then one day, my best female friend ended up being Daemons crush. Because Elena and I were pretty close he thought that we were something more than friends and proclaimed me as his love rival."

"That sounds complicated." Mukuro sighed. "...You were almost drowned by your own family?"

"Yes." I nodded wryly. Drowning wasn't really a good memory to have, especially if it was your own relatives who tried to drown you. "I was mostly ignored when I was younger, but when it became impossible to ignore me they tried to kill me and they almost succeeded when I was eleven. The saddest thing is that this happened in the only _real _childhood that I had. I remembered everything that happened in my next life's..."

"It must be harsh to remember all that." Mukuro sighed, probably partially understanding my feelings about remembering unwanted memories. He only remembered his past life's in this life and could live a normal chilhood... if the Estraneo didn't excist. Now he had a horrible childhood like I once had and I'm afraid that there is nothing that he could to to forget that.

Just like my memories... though those memories are what made me the person I am today. And despite the bad memories, there are things that I'd rather never forget.

"Hmm, it kind of is... but at least I remember the good times too." I smiled. "And we have to look at the brighter side! If I didn't remember my past life's and experiences I wouldn't have met you!" I smiled.

"Then I'm grateful for that." Mukuro smiled at me. I flower-smiled back before looking back at the illusionary night sky and enjoying the feeling of familiarity I got from sharing this illusion with Mukuro.

"I have to go now, paperwork to do and breakfast to cook." I sighed after a while. "Are you going too?"

"Kufufu, I will stay for a little longer." Mukuro chuckled. "I've missed this place."

"Kufufufu, I will take you to this place in reality too, sometime in the future. " I promised.

…

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the peaceful face of a sleeping Mukuro, just a few centimeters away from my own face. The only reasons why I didn't scream were because I was honestly too tired to, because I didn't want to warn the new inhabitants of my home, or my uncles for that matter... _especially_ my uncles, and because it was Muku-chan.

_If it was Daemon I would have screamed bloody murder and kicked him out of my bed._

After prying off the arms that were, oddly comfortably, hugging my waist I put the owl plushie in my place and crawled out of my bed to walk to my desk with a pile of fresh paperwork.

"There is no better way than starting the day than with paperwork." I stated sarcastically while I began writing.

"Zero-sama, there is a new pile of paperwo- did you know that there is a guy in your bed, Zero-sama?" Seth deadpanned when he walked in with more paperwork and a cup of hot chocolate.

"I'm aware of that, uncle Seth." I smiled wryly as I accepted the pile and the cup. "We still haven't found the thieves?"

"Not really, Zero… you know that there is a human pineapple who is cuddling an owl plushie in your bed, right?" Chris asked when he walked in as well.

"I'm very aware of that, uncle Chris." I sighed while continuing reading my paperwork. I frowned when a smaller piece of paper fell to the floor while I turned a document around and picked it up "…If we haven't found the thieves yet, then how could Spanner actually complete his Gola Mosca without the missing blueprints?" I asked when I saw the picture of a smiling Spanner in front a robot and a practically seen destroyed wall.

"He probably improved it without the blueprints, you know that guy. Always trying to make more destructive robots." Chris sighed. "And don't try to distract us from the guy in your bed."

"I wasn't." I protested. "And I didn't know that he was there until I woke up either!"

"He didn't do anything to you right, Zero-sama?" Seth asked with a dark edge to his words.

"No he didn't! I'm only eleven! _Eleven_, way too young for this kind of thing!" I blushed.

"What are you too young for byon?" Ken asked as he came in my room as well with Mukuro's band of misfits.

"Nothing!" I shouted before Chris and Seth could say a single thing. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Exploring this residence." Chikusa stated emotionlessly... Or not? I could never be too sure about him because of the tone he used, though his way of communicating kind of resembles the skylark language. Maybe learning how to communicate with Chikusa is going to be easier than I thought.

"Right… be careful when you enter some of the basements lower than the third, some of the rooms there contain some dangerous stuff." I nodded before literally abandoning my paperwork. With all these people in here I wouldn't be able to finish it anyways.

"What is Mukuro-chan doing in this room?" M.M. asked when she noticed the teen sleeping in my bed.

"That is a very good question of which we want an answer as well. What is that _guy_ doing in _your_ bed, Zero?" Chris asked with a smile that sent shivers through my spine.

"Hmm… I believe that I... have to make breakfast!" I shouted before using my illusions to slip out of my room. It was kind of sad that I had to run away from my own room.

_My own room!_

…

"We know that you are here, Zero. Just become visible again so we can eat." Chris sighed when everyone except Mukuro and I were visibly sitting around the dining table with a plate of... something that resembled scrambled eggs on it. I sighed and hesitantly made myself visible.

"And now you are visible again, why is Mukuro-chan in your room?" M.M. asked me before prodding her food with her chopsticks. Ken was already halfway his meal and Chikusa was eating in silence, but my uncles were giving me the look that you give your children when they came home after their curfew.

"Hmm… I kind of woke up and he was… there." I flower-smiled, hoping that the flowers could safe me from another scolding. "And we were catching up in our 'dreams'?"

"…Catching up in your _dreams_?" M.M. echoed incredulously. "What do you mean with that?"

"You should have listened to Mukuro-san byon." Ken stated between swallowing his food and putting another handful of scrambled eggs in his mouth.

"What Ken means is that Zero over here is the one who taught Mukuro how to use his illusions." Chikusa explained calmly. "It is only natural that they are able to… communicate through dreams."

"Hmm, it is actually more like an illusionary world." I mused before eating my breakfast, hoping that this matter was over now. However my hopes were easily crushed by my uncles who were still watching me with suspicion. Luckily enough, just before Chris or Seth could ask me anything, Mukuro walked in with his familiar smirk.

His smirk however faltered once his eyes crossed mine.

"Alright, Muku-chan, what did you do?"

…

When the day began, I never expected to wake up with Mukuro next to me and he continued surprising me with whatever he did… though not exactly in the positive meaning of surprise.

"Let me repeat that… You _accidentally _met someone in their mindscape when you were leaving the cliff and promised them to safe their life?" I deadpanned as I was looking at the old hospital in Kokuyo that Mukuro dragged me to in the morning. _Too early in the morning._

"Kufufu, that is right." Mukuro chuckled.

"Then why am only I here and not your band of misfits?"

"Because she knew you." The pineapple teen answered. "She even asked me to call you from a business card from something that is called 'Nemo company'…" My eyes widened when I heard that and I turned my head to look into Mukuro's slightly surprised mismatched eyes.

"Nagi-san's life is in danger?!" I exclaimed in horror.

"Oya oya, so you really did know her." Mukuro mused before nodding.

"Damn it! What happened to her?"

"She was in a traffic accident while trying to save a cat. She lost most of her organs and one of her eyes. According to the girl, her mother refused to donate her organs to save her life because she wasn't worth it…"

And for the second time in a week I snapped. I was already worried about Nagi's eating problems and now this? What kind of parent does something like that?!

"I'll help." I stated bluntly before casting a small illusion to change my appearance to look like a darkhaired Chris and entering the hospital. I walked to the reception and smiled a flower-smile at the man behind the desk. "Excuse me, where can I find the room of Hirajama Nagi?"

"Excuse me sir, but the visiting hours are-"

"No, excuse _me_, but I need to visit her now. It's an important matter." I interrupted him. I could see Mukuro standing next to me in the corner of my eyes, he was disguised as Lanchia.

"Kufufu, I think that you should listen to him. This is a matter of life and death." Mukuro stated.

"You can only visit during the visiting hours and those are-"

"It seems that he won't listen to us…" I whispered while the man behind the desk continued talking.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Mukuro whispered back.

"If you are thinking of traumatizing this young man, then no. Let me do this." I sighed before putting a small illusion of the darkhaired Chris and Lanchia in front of the reception and gesturing to Mukuro to follow me.

"Do you know where we have to go?" Mukuro asked me as we entered the elevator.

"The convenient thing about hospitals…" I began before putting another illusion around us to change our appearance into those of two doctors that we passed by. "Is that doctors have the right to ask where a patient is…"

…

The first time that Nagi saw Zero was in a café in Kokuyo where she was glaring at her gaming device. It had been a though day for Nagi, so she could remember almost every detail of that day. How her mother was disappointed in her because she couldn't be as perfect as her, how she literally ran away from her home because the pressure of that disappointment was too much for her to handle. How she ran blindly through the streets of Kokuyo and how it began to rain, forcing her along with other people to seek refuge in the shops along the streets.

Or in her case, in the small café which was rumored to have the best hot chocolate in Kokuyo.

Since it was raining outside, most of the tables and seats in the café were taken by others. However, one table was not surrounded by people. Only a small girl who looked completely unaware of her surroundings sat between the empty seats around the round table. After gathering her courage, Nagi asked the white haired girl if she could sit with her.

She expected that the girl would say no because she was waiting for her parents, but to her surprise she said yes. She didn't expect the girl to order food for her either or the semi-scolding that made her yearn for a loving mother that she didn't have.

Sure, Nagi had a mother… but a _loving_ mother? That was like a faraway dream ever since her real father died…

The second time that she saw Zero was in a bus to Kokuyo health land when she needed to get away from her home again. This time she was glaring at her gaming device as well and just like last time, the seats surrounding her were the only seats that weren't taken yet. This time Nagi didn't have to gather her courage to approach the girl, though a small feeling of fear was still there.

What if Zero thought that she was a bother?

But the girl smiled warmly at her before frowning in worry. She showed that she actually _cared_, unlike her teachers at school or her classmates or even her own _mother_. But before Zero could confront Nagi about whatever she worried about, she had to leave the bus. Nagi wasn't sure if she had to be glad or disappointed of that.

She really wanted to talk about her situations with someone, but she was afraid of telling her family-problems and her feelings about being caged to a stranger as well. No matter how friendly the stranger was.

But even despite her doubts, she still felt desperate to talk with someone. She felt desperate for someone she could call a friend, someone who cared and the only one who gave her a hint of that was leaving… however, her expectations were wrong again as the pale purple eyed girl gave her a way to contact her before leaving.

Maybe this would be her chance of having a real friend. A chance to change the life that she was living for her mother into a life that she lived for herself.

And then she lost all her chances to live at all and she was literally abandoned by her own mother and stepfather. She felt guilt for not being able to contact the girl and sadness for she lost her last chance of having an actual friend and a _real _life… and then _he_ came.

The blue haired teen wihth mismatched eyes appeared in her dream to his and her own surprise. He told her that he didn't meant to invade her dream, but still asked if something was wrong when she suddenly started to cry.

Nagi wasn't sure why she cried, maybe because of the life that was about to be robbed away from her or because of gratitude that she could at least tell someone about her life now. Even if it was a stranger, it didn't matter anymore. She was going to die anyways.

After telling the guy in her dreams her story, about the expectations and the dissapointments that her mother held to her, she felt free. But still, there was something that bothered her. It didn't take long before she knew what that was… _Zero_. She still had to contact her, thank her for caring, though it was impossible now.

So she asked the blue haired teen to call the girl, half-expecting him to refuse her or ignore her… but he offered a way for her to live instead.

"Kufufu, Zero would be disappointed in me if I left this situation as it is… and your story kind of remind of what she told me about her own life just now. Abandoned to death by your own family, though she had someone that saved her… would you let me and Zero be the ones that will give you a chance to live?" he smirked nonchalantly, though Nagi could see the sadness and determination behind that smirk.

"That is impossible." Nagi smiled wryly. "It wouldn't be much longer until I die because my organs are giving in…"

"We can do it." The guy argued with his determination even stronger than before. "Believe in us… believe in yourself."

"I'll try." Nagi smiled before the darkness overwhelmed her. It was scary to not feel whatever was happening and only faintly hearing voices that simply didn't make sense. It was tiring to actually think about it, but Nagi still tried.

Was it really alright to let her life be ended like this?

Has she lived the life that she wanted to live?

Does she have to give up, just because her mother gave up on her all those years ago?

_No._

This is her life, not her mother's. This is her life and it actually just begun so she shouldn't give up. She shouldn't give in to the sadness and try to change to the person _she_ wanted to be. The person that she actually was. Nagi would live her own life from now on, not her mother's.

_And I'll believe in myself._

Nagi didn't know how long she was in the terrifying darkness, however after strengthening her resolve she could see light. No, she could see a flame. A warm indigo flame that reassured her that everything was going to be fine and when Nagi opened her eye, she knew that everything was indeed going to be fine.

"Good to see you again, Nagi-san." Zero smiled softly before nodding at the teen that Nagi saw in her dreams. "If you are ready, Muku-chan."

"Kufufu, of course I am. Listen to me, my dear Nagi, we are going to replace your organs with illusionary organs. This way you should be able to live until organs become available." The guy referred as Muku-chan smirked.

"Don't worry, Nagi-san. We know what we are doing and I will personally make sure that you will be able to get those organs." Zero added and somehow, Nagi knew that she could believe that promise.

"…T-thank you." Nagi smiled through the tears that started to fall. She could feel her life begin again, her strength returning to her and her heart beat normally again as the warmth of foreign, but faintly familiar indigo flames gave her everything she needed to live.

"Kufufu, all done." The guy chuckled.

"And by the way, Nagi-san?" Zero began. "Welcome to our family."

Nagi could feel the warmth that the almost-stranger gave to her with only a few words. And she could feel that everything was indeed going to be fine now… no, everything _is _fine now.

…

**Omake: name**

"You need a new identity now." Zero mused as she gestured me to sit down in one of the green couches.

"Kufufu, I'm glad that you have experience in this." Mukuro chuckled. The albino girl gave the blue haired teen an amused smile before showing a document to me.

"This, Nagi-san, is going to be your new identity… Do you have a request for your name?" Zero smiled. I blinked a few times in surprise before glancing at the still smirking teen next to the still smiling Zero.

"N-no I don't" I whispered. After their explanation about their situation of being Mafioso I felt a bit of fear for my future. I heard a lot of bad things about the mafia after all… But still I couldn't help but wonder if they are really as bad as the stories made them sound like when I looked at the two people in front of me. They saved my life and offered me a chance to live as myself despite having no profits with saving me.

_They are the ones who gave me everything that I could've wished for._

"T-though it would be nice if I had something of your names in my name."

"Hmm, our names?" Zero tilted her head cutely in surprise.

"Then what about Dokuro Kuromu?" Mukuro mused after five minutes. "That is an anagram of my name…"

"Something tells me that you've been thinking longer about this than five minutes… " Zero sweatdropped before returning her attention to me. "Hmm, what about Chrome instead of Kuromu? It is easier to remember that way."

"I-it sounds pretty good." I nodded. "Chrome sounds good."

"Then it's done." Zero nodded before filling in the blanks of the document and shoving it to me. "You only need to sign it, Nagi-san."

I looked at the piece of paper and the neat handwriting that professionally filled the blank spaces. It looked official and complicated, but Zero somehow managed to make it beautiful as well. This was going to be my new life… and then I saw the name that was going to be my name.

"Estraneo-Dokuro Chrome?" I read out loud. "Isn't Estraneo your last name, Zero-chan?"

"Well… I was thinking of adopting you." Zero smiled brightly, making me blush in both embarrassment and in confusion.

"A-adopting?" I stuttered.

"Oya oya, aren't you too young for adopting her?" Mukuro sweatdropped.

"Hmm, I'm mentally older than I'm physically am, Muku-chan. And we are in the mafia, our very existence is illegal…" Zero mused before smiling with a glint of mischief in her eyes. "Or could it be that you are jealous of her? Don't worry Muku-chan. You named us, so you are kind of our mother."

"Why the mother?"

"Most of the times It was my mother who named me... except for my first one. My grandfather named me back then..."

"...I'm not becoming your mother or grandfather, Zero. Not even your son." Mukuro deadpanned before Zero could offer to adopt him too.

"Kufufufu, you can always marry one of us to officially join the family." Zero chuckled, but Mukuro didn't answer and gave the younger girl a very thoughtful look.

"When is the wedding?"

"W-what?"

"Kufufu, you just proposed right?" Mukuro smirked.

"I was _joking, _Muku-chan. And we are too young for this anyways."

"Oya oya, I'm mentally older than I'm physically am, my dear Zero. And we are in the mafia, our very existence is illegal…"

"...you are going never going to let this matter go, aren't you?" Zero sighed though she still had a fond smile on her face. I suppressed a laugh at their antics, I could see that they were close though in an almost awkward way. It was plain visible that Zero was only joking while Mukuro was only half-joking, though it was all good-natured... right?

After looking at the fond, and exasperated in Zero's case, smiles once more I returned my attention to the document that was waiting to be signed. I picked up the pen and smiled as I signed it:

_Estraneo-Dokuro Chrome._

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**So, like I said Chrome will appear though she will definitely have a different role in the storyline. And more about Zero's first life, though it was just a rough summary without details... don't worry, more details will come later on. Hmm, maybe it's time for some romance now... just maybe. I think that the only pairings that will work out are either Zero with Mukuro or Tsuna... I don't really think that a pairing with Hibari would work out, but that is also a possibility (no matter how small it is). And though I really like Enma, he is simply not in this story yet :(. In any way, the suitor will have to go through Reborn. Anyways, I will be thinking about possible pairings (though there is a possibility of having no pairings at all as well).  
**

**I'm glad that you like this story, mysterious guest number 1. And it was pretty obvious that she would play card games to be sure of her victory kufufu. The crush... was pretty inevitable I think.**

**Hmm, what kind of punishment you ask, Grizzmon? It doesn't contain violence though a lot of guilt trips, what-if-scenarios and Leon hammering were involved... allright, maybe a bit of violence was involved. But nothing that Zero couldn't handle! Paperwork could be involved as well, but she is bound to do paperwork anyways.**

**That is indeed the case, ddmahan922.**

**And I totally get what you mean, Raven-V-Blackshade XD!**

**For mysterious guest number 2: Mafia-seduction would indeed be usefull for that... *sighs.**

**Alright! The next chapter will be either the extra chapter or the first chapter of the Varia arc (it depends on which one is finished first)! Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	30. Chapter 30

Xtra chapter: unofficial meetings

**Daemon**

If anyone would ask Daemon how he met his childhood friend, he would answer that he met her through her grandfather during one of his parents' social greetings... however he would be lying.

He did meet Alexis Chevalier _officially _when his parents introduced him to Frederick Chevalier, a successful business man of noble lineage and a mentor to his father. But he had met Alexis even before this meeting.

The _actual _first time that he met Alexis Chevalier was during a party when he was running away from overbearing noble ladies that wanted him to hook up with their daughters. Daemon, who was only eight at that time, of course misunderstood their motives for insulting him. What kind of boy would _like _being called cute?

In one of his escapades, he ran into a room which door was left open for some reason and _that _was when he really met Alexis. The dark blonde six years old girl who was reading a leather bound book out loud and created fleeting images of ships sailing in the air.

"W-what n-n-no way, w-witchcraft..." The eight years old Daemon muttered before promptly fainting, startling Alexis as result and dissolving the ships.

"…What did just happen?"

It was the birth of a wonderfully awkward, but memorial, relationship.

**Giotto and G (and Cozart)**

"Oh my God, I never expected this to work..." Cozart muttered after taking a step back. He dropped the bottle that he was holding, weirdly enough It didn't break, and stared at the result with wide eyes.

"What happened?" Giotto asked slightly fearful for the answer.

"Don't freak out..." G began. "But we managed to let your hair down." At this Giotto's hands flew to his head, only to touch nothing where he was used to feel his oddly fluffy hair. His usually untamable golden hair was now down and held back with an orange ribbon.

"Dear God... I thought that it was a scam." Giotto whispered as he remembered the old man who sold the, what was it called again, hair gel. He didn't expect it to work, but he was desperate enough to give it a try. Both G and Cozart agreed with him that women began to have an unhealthy obsession over him ever since he turned eighteen and that his hair was too recognizable to leave it as it was.

Though his face could be hidden with a mask because of carnival, his hair definitely wouldn't fit behind it or in a hat like how G's or Cozart's hair was hidden for the world. Giotto was already fearing the women who would flock around him and literally fight over him, but to his surprise the hair gel actually worked.

"Now we can attend carnival without being mobbed" Cozart cheered before pulling his mask over his face.

"Snap out of it, Giotto, carnival doesn't wait." G laughed before pulling his mask down as well and putting on his hat. Then he proceeded with walking to the plaza where the festivities were held.

"Right." Giotto smiled before pulling his mask down too and following his best friends. "Honestly I don't understand why no one understands that I'm not interested, I would have shown interest if I were. If they understood then we wouldn't have to disguise ourselves."

"We'll keep that in mind." G and Cozart smirked at exactly the same time and with exactly the same considering expression, making Giotto wonder what he had called upon himself. But before Giotto could worry more, this time about the way that his best friends were observing him to see if he shows interest, the three friends reached their destination.

The plaza was filled with life like every carnival festivity was, but the plaza had something that made it almost magical. The lights and performances were one of the causes of that, resulting in the fact that this was the most visited place in carnival.

Usually Giotto and his friends would have avoided this place like the pest to avoid being mobbed by women, but now they were practically seen unrecognizable they went there for a change. And the three friends weren't disappointed by what they saw.

The warm lights were indeed mesmerizing and mysterious in the night, especially in the mist that was starting to gather, and the performances... there were many performances like a blindfolded teen who was juggling with green fire that almost looked electrical or a young woman who was dancing with an older man, while surrounded by something that could only be described as white and indigo light.

"Now I finally understand why everyone likes to go to the plaza..." Giotto muttered when the dancing was over.

"Hmm, really?"

"Yes, that dancing was breathtaking..."

"Kufufufu, thank you."

"You're welcome..." _Wait... what? _Giotto turned his head to the left, hoping to see either G or Cozart. He did see them... just behind a tree, giving thumbs ups when they saw him. The one he was talking to was the young woman who just finished dancing.

"Your friends requested me to talk to you." She smiled and Giotto almost blanked out. He showed interest didn't he? But that wasn't what he meant!

"R-right." Giotto sweatdropped while inwardly cursing the two redheads behind the tree.

"What is your name?" The young woman asked. Giotto snapped out of his half-dazed state and looked at her. Her dark blonde hair was braided and held back with a ribbon like his hair was, though her ribbon was indigo instead of orange. He could only see her eyes in the dim lights and because of her mask, but her eyes were enough to make him smile back and forget about the more annoying women.

He decided that he liked those warm honey brown eyes.

"Gio-" Giotto began, but he quickly stopped talking when he realized that he was making a big mistake. Once his name was known, she will know who he was and when a woman knows who he was... "-vanni"

"Kufufufu, Giovanni?" The dark blonde laughed. "You just made that up didn't you?"

"Haha... maybe?" Giotto laughed hesitantly.

"Well, it's carnival so it isn't strange to pretend that you are someone else. Hmm... you can call me Alexandria, that was my grandmother's name." 'Alexandria' smiled.

"Nice to meet you then." Giotto smiled and sighing in relieve. He was glad that Alexandria didn't ask for his real name and he sensed no lies in whatever she said up to now. It was a pleasant change since everyone around him would lie at one point.

"You have some great friends." Alexandria smiled and when she saw Giotto's confusion she laughed. "Kufufufu they worry enough about you to hide themselves badly behind a tree and observe us.

"Right..." Giotto sweatdropped. He should have known that it was kind of obvious where the two redheads were hidden.

"So… how long have you known each other?" The young woman asked.

"I've known G… abriel since we were children and Co… nner for three years." Giotto answered and before Alexandria could ask more questions that could lead to his real identity he decided to ask _her_ questions. He had to make sure that she wouldn't find out who 'Giovanni' really was, or he would get in trouble. "Are you a professional dancer?"

"Hmm? Not really. In fact, I'm an apprentice and my teacher kind of conned me into dressing up like this and dancing." Alexandria answered truthfully. "Though it was Tal that really wanted to come."

"Really?" Giotto chuckled.

"Al! We need to go now!" The blindfolded teen who was juggling with the green fire announced.

"I'm coming, Tal! It was nice to meet you, Giovanni." Alexandria smiled before running off with 'Tal' and the older man that she was dancing with and disappearing into the mist.

"And how did it go _Giovanni_?" Cozart asked with a suggestive tone that made Giotto blush when he and G approached the blonde.

"I hate you, _Conner_. Couldn't you have taken my words as a joke or a complaint?" Giotto sighed while trying to hide his blushing face behind his hands, completely forgetting that he was wearing a mask in the action.

"It's not like you're the only one suffering here… and no." G answered. "But how did it go?"

"I hate you too, _Gabriel_. But it went pretty well. She was interesting-" Giotto nodded before realizing something stupid. "…and she hasn't told me her real name yet."

And that _she _was the one who made sure that he couldn't find out who 'Alexandria' really was.

**Knuckle**

He knew that he did something extremely wrong when he didn't see his opponent move. He knew that he did something horrible when he saw the blood on his boxing gloves. He knew that he did something unforgivable when he ran away.

He needed to be gone from the ring that he once loved to enter, he needed to be far away from the shouts that were once encouraging, he wanted to forget that unmoving body with the lifeless eyes and- nononononono_nonononono_!

That fight in the ring, no it wasn't a fight anymore, the madness in the ring was way worse than his usual boxing matches. It was harsher, _deadlier, _and Knuckle knew that he made a big mistake by fighting this night.

It was only after an hour that felt like forever when he collapsed from his own wounds, unable to take another step without collapsing. The black haired man looked up into the sky and wondered if this was his punishment for killing that man. Being left in an alleyway to die. But just before Knuckle closed his eyes and lost consciousness, he saw a pair of honey brown eyes that frowned worried at him.

"Hmm, are you alright?"

The next time that Knuckle opened his eyes again, he was in the church.

"Are you alright now?" The man that the boxer recognized as the local priest asked. Knuckle shot up in his bed and grabbed the head of the unsuspecting man. Green. His eyes were green.

"Who was the one that EXTREMELY saved me?" He demanded after confirming that it couldn't have been the priest that saved him in the alleyway.

"Alex?" The priest answered confused. "He brought you here along with his weekly donations... if you want to meet him, you can come back next week Saturday around thirty to eleven." And that was exactly what Knuckle did… actually, that was _almost_ exactly what he did.

Instead of coming back in the next week, he came back every single day. Not only because he didn't want to waste any chance of meeting his benefactor, but also because it was the church where he ended up in.

It was truly the will of god that had brought him here, no matter how many times that Alex told him that it was simply coincidence.

**Alaude**

"Hn." Alaude nodded when his subordinate finished his reports about the 'demon'. It actually started as a rumor, but more and more witnesses have admitted that they have seen the demon and honestly? It was starting to get unnerving.

How can a single man rob the money of his opponent with card games only? There must be something more involved than only cards and Alaude would find out what… and if it was illegal he would arrest him.

Following the rumors, he ended up in a small tavern close to the harbor. He left his subordinates outside, Alaude was confident that he was the only one that was needed for this job after all, and walked in the small building… but he couldn't see the chaos that he expected.

No, it was an organized mess.

Where people were usually fighting under the influence of alcohol, there was a crowd surrounding a single table that was surprisingly quiet. Despite his hate for crowds, Alaude approached the crowd to see what caused the silence that didn't belong in a tavern filled with sailors and businessmen.

The round table had a total of five men that were playing a card game. Poker, if Alaude saw it right. And from what he saw he couldn't tell which one of these herbivores was the rumored demon.

There was one sailor, or at least that was what Alaude thought about the herbivore when he saw the tanned skin and the uniform, that was obviously losing. The pathetic herbivore didn't have a lot of money left and would probably be the first to lose all of his money.

Another one of the men was definitely a slightly successful businessman. He still had a lot of money left, but judging from his expression he had lost more than he had gained from the game.

Then there was the youngest man of the five. Looking at the worn out dress shirt that he wore, he was neither rich nor poor. The poker face that he wore was quite impressing, Alaude couldn't read a single emotion from the young blonde. Not even when he stared in those honey brown eyes. But seeing the money on the table, the young man definitely did well in the game.

The fourth man was someone that Alaude recognized as the owner of this tavern. The man in his mid-thirties had a smug smile, but Alaude could see that the smile was kind of shaky. It was like the man was expecting something to happen even though he had the most money on the table right now.

And the last man… just what is that herbivore doing here? The man that Alaude recognized as _his own subordinate _was supposed to do his work right now… and Alaude won't tolerate people who played hooky on him.

So when the sailor lost all of his money, like Alaude predicted, he took his place in the game like it was nothing. This earned some confused looks from the businessman and the youngest man and a horrified look from the owner of the tavern and his subordinate. The latter one was even trembling in his seat when he realized that he was in trouble now.

"Hmm… alright." The youngest man sweatdropped when the platinum blonde refused to leave the table. "Let's continue the game then."

"Hn." Alaude nodded before looking at his cards and playing the game. It all went pretty well... until suddenly the businessman lost all of his money, followed by the tavern owner and his own subordinate. Alaude looked at the only opponent left and made a mental note that this herbivore was wearing a mask all this time.

He had never seen the blonde show any emotion other than the confusion when he joined the game. And then the expression changed… the emotionlessness changed into an innocent smile and the eyes that once told nothing, showed determination now.

"Kufufufu, if you wouldn't mind. I have an appointment soon." The young man chuckled before the game suddenly turned more serious and unbeatable. Alaude wasn't too sure about it, but he could see some sadism showing in those honey brown eyes and in that smile that wasn't innocent anymore.

And he didn't like that.

Before either the young man or Alaude knew it, Alaude lost the game and the other man was caught in handcuffs.

"…What is this?" He frowned.

"Hn, come along with me for an interrogation."

"Hmm? But I haven't done anything wrong?"

"That is why it's an _interrogation_." Alaude scowled. This herbivore was asking too many questions.

"…Sorry, but I've got an appointment." The dark blonde apologized before… _where is the herbivore gone?_

"B-boss, this always happens after it is ten o'clock." The subordinate that was playing hooky tried to explain. "Alex appears every Saturday when the sun has set and when it is a quarter to ten, Alex turns serious and at ten exactly he disappears. Sometimes he leaves through the door… but at other times he just disappears like just now."

"Hn… don't think that you are free to go after informing me. This information is proof that you have been slacking off more than only today." Alaude stated before handcuffing the herbivore and walking out of the tavern.

He also made a mental note to catch this 'Alex' the next time he saw him.

**Asari**

Asari liked to think that he was an accepting person. Did his mother want him to learn swordsmanship because all the males of her family did? Sure, it was even fun to do swordsmanship though it couldn't beat music.

Did his father want him to get on a ship to learn a good way of earning money? Why not? It was exciting to discover the world that he never knew though Asari had to admit that he would miss Japan greatly. Despite that thought, he went on a ship to the Netherlands and enjoyed his travels.

He learned how to speak Dutch from the sailors and other passengers and he entertained them with music in return for that favor. And so time flew by for Asari and when he stepped off the ship, he was ready to see how the Netherlands looked like… only, no one could speak Dutch here.

Asari was an accepting person, so he accepted the fact that no one could speak Dutch in the harbor and tried to find someone who he could talk to… but he found no one and when he returned to where the ship was supposed to be, the ship was gone.

Even for an accepting person as Asari, this was too much. He was sure that he wasn't in the Netherlands now… and didn't he hear about a small stop to load some stuff in another country before the Netherlands? Which country was it again?

"Buon giorno, signore. Ti sei perso?" someone behind Asari asked. The Japanese turned around and smiled at the smaller dark blonde man.

"Ik kan je niet verstaan." The Japanese admitted sheepishly. And though he was sure that this wasn't the Netherlands, the blonde understood what he said.

"Hmm, you aren't from the Netherlands… are you?" He asked in Dutch. "They normally understand Italian when they get to Italy and, well, you don't look Dutch either.

"Haha, I'm indeed not from the Netherlands. I'm from Japan." Asari laughed, relieved that he found someone who could speak a language that he knew.

"Japan?" The blonde beamed. "I've read about that country!"

"Really…?" Asari smiled.

"Right, you can call me Alex." Alex smiled.

"Nice to meet you, Alex-dono. My name is Asari Ugetsu… though it would be Ugetsu Asari in Europe." Asari introduced himself.

"…Asari-san right?" Alex mused. "Or should I use –dono instead?"

"-san is alright. You know quite a bit about Japan, don't you?"

"Kufufufu, not really. I just read a bit about the Japanese culture from my grandfather's diary." Alex admitted sheepishly. "Anyways, are you lost, Asari-san?"

"Actually… I missed my boat."

"You… missed your boat?"

"And now I'm stuck here…"

"And now you're… stuck here." Alex echoed incredulously. The young man muttered some incomprehensible stuff in Italian before sighing and accepting the fact that the Japanese man was… simply _carefree_. "…Hmm, I'm afraid that I can't do a lot in this case. Though I can lead you to a tavern where I used to play cards until _that guy _came along. They still owe me and there are a lot of businessmen there that can speak Dutch. They should be able to help you and if not, you should be able to find me in our antique shop."

"Haha, thank you Alex." Asari laughed. Yes, if he kept on being accepting everything was going to be fine.

He made a friend because of it after all.

**Lampo**

"Where are you going, Asari?" The green haired noble son asked lazily when he saw the Japanese leaving the Vongola mansion. He had met the easygoing man when Giotto and G returned after their search for Alaude, that damned policeman always disappeared on Saturdays for an unknown reason, without the platinum blonde but with a foreigner who could barely speak Italian.

Lampo never really understood Asari, how could a person be so carefree anyways? He missed his ship to the Netherlands and was stuck in Italy for three months already because he missed one ship and lost his ticket when the second ship came! How could anyone accept that? And now the Japanese man was leaving in the midst of the day, when the Vongola vigilante group was discussing how to deal with the threats of a small mafia Famiglia.

"Maa maa, I'm just going to visit a friend." Asari smiled. Lampo raised an eyebrow at that, he was aware of this friend that helped him to the tavern where Giotto and G found him. Without this mysterious man Asari would have been lost forever after all.

"I'm coming along." Lampo yawned before following Asari. Coming along with the Japanese man was better than being forced to listen to, honestly, boring discussions and the green haired man was curious about the mysterious friend.

The young noble wasn't too sure of what to expect from the mysterious friend, but Asari never mentioned that the young man was working in the antique shop that his father wanted to buy before Lampo joined the Vongola. According to his father, the shop had stuff that could earn a fortune but Lampo never paid attention to his rants.

Why would he need to know all this? _It's useless…_

"…Asari?" A warm voice asked once the said Japanese man opened the door of the small shop. Lampo peeked through the door opening to see the friend that he heard so much about and almost sighed in disappointment. It was a _normal_ young man... Lampo almost expected someone who was more mysterious than this.

"Hello Knight-kun." Asari greeted the young man. The dark blonde abandoned his pen and whatever he was writing or drawing in a leather bound book to greet his friend.

"Welcome to our humble shop, Asari. How are you doing?" He asked while standing up from his chair and putting the leather bound book away.

"Maa maa, I am doing fine… though can you do me a favor?"

"Hmm, what kind of favor?" 'Knight' asked confused. "Don't tell me that you ran into trouble and that you lost your ticket back to Japan again…"

"Haha, it's a funny story…" Asari began sheepishly. "Some friends of mine ran into trouble and I… kind of sold my ticket to have enough money to buy a sword to help them?"

"…" The blonde sighed before running a hand through his hair and letting himself fall in his chair. "Only you, Asari, only you would still laugh after all this. What is the favor you wanted?"

"Do you sell swords?" Asari asked uncharacteristic serious, earning a surprised look from Lampo and 'Knight'.

"What the hell do you think that an _antique_ shop is selling? This isn't a weapons shop!" Lampo exclaimed. He had observed the conversation in silence before he finally couldn't stay silent anymore. This Japanese was simply too idiotic for words!

"Hmm… a sword you say?" 'Knight' mused, ignoring Lampo's exclamation or simply having missed it in his thoughts. "Do you mind if it is flame resistant? I just finished one."

"Flame resistant?!" Lampo exclaimed. "What is that supposed to mean?! And you just finished one?!"

"Haha, that sounds fine." Asari laughed. 'Knight' nodded before disappearing behind a door that Lampo didn't notice before. It didn't take long before the young man was back again, this time with a sword.

"Here you go Asari. And because it's you, I will give you a discount. Just promise me that you will come back alive." He nodded.

"Don't worry Knight-kun. I will be fine." Asari said, suddenly a lot more cheerful than before. "I didn't know that you could make katanas, Knight-kun."

"Kufufufu, I read the descriptions of this weapon in my grandfather's diary."

"What are you guys talking about?!" Lampo exclaimed. "Buying swords in an antique shop and talking like we're going to die and then act like nothing happened, just what is wrong with you guys?!"

"Hmm, who is this, Asari?" 'Knight' asked in a way that implied that he didn't see Lampo before this all despite the several exclamations.

"Haha, I forgot about him. This is Lampo, one of my friends."

"You forgot about me?!"

"Nice to meet you Lampo, you can call me Alex." Alex smiled, making Lampo speechless for a second.

Did they really forget about him?

Was it his imagination or did his smile sparkle?

Why is this young man so… _feminine_ or was that his imagination too?

"…Nice to meet you…" Lampo breathed. He still wasn't sure of what to think of this young man, but one thing was sure…

Alex was more mysterious than he initially thought.

**Elena**

"No, I really don't need this." Elena sweatdropped. She only needed to buy enough ingredients for dinner tonight, she definitely didn't need troubles with a vendor because she simply didn't want that necklace.

"A young woman like you who is all alone on Sunday? Of course you need this." The market vendor insisted. Elena resisted the urge to kick the man where the sun doesn't shine, she knew that she was all alone on Sunday and that man didn't need to rub salt in her wounds by implying that she needed jewels to attract a man. Elena was just waiting for someone with whim she could feel a spark, damn it!

"Kufufufu, here you are. I thought that I lost you." Someone behind Elena laughed relieved. The young woman turned around and blinked confused at the young man around her age. He seemed around Lampo's height and sported the same kind of hairstyle as Alaude, though maybe a bit fluffier and with different bangs. He was quite handsome, but Elena couldn't help but think that something was off about this young man.

The lean and thin body, the long eyelashes and the plump lips. He even had a few curves for what Elena could see! Elena knew that men could be as beautiful as women, especially Giotto and she was still not entirely over the fact that Giotto had a nicer skin than hers, but this man wasn't only as beautiful as a woman...

It was like he was a woman in disguise.

The dark blonde saw the confusion and blinked as a sign for her to play along.

And playing along was what Elena did.

"Sorry, darling, but I was distracted by these beautiful jewels..." Elena smiled, trusting her woman's intuition about trusting this man.

"Hmm, these jewels?" Her 'darling' wondered out loud before offering Elena an arm. "You don't need them to be more beautiful than you already are, my dearest, what am I to do if other man want to steal you away from me?"

"Aw, you flatter me darling." Elena giggled as she accepted the arm and left the booth behind. "Thank you." Elena whispered when the vendor was out of hearing range.

"Kufufufu, don't worry about that..."

"Elena."

"Nice to meet you, Elena, you can call me Alex." Alex smiled. "May I ask you what a beautiful woman like you is walking around in the market?"

"Sure you can, Alex. I'm here to buy groceries for tonight's dinner for everyone else in the mansion is too busy for that." Elena smiled at the man who couldn't be a male. "May I ask you the same question, handsome young 'man'?"

"Kufufufu, my answer would be the same answer as yours, Elena." Alex chuckled. "Would you mind if I tagged along?"

"Of course I don't mind." Elena smiled. "Are you a cook?"

"Hmm, not really. I am the one that cooks in our humble household, but I'm an apprentice." Alex answered.

"An apprentice?"

"Yes, my teacher is the best one around... but he has been more and more absent lately and he doesn't notify me or my junior. It's like he has found other, more interesting, apprentices than us." The dark blonde sighed.

"That sounds though." Elena agreed with the almost sad sigh. She could sympathize with Alex because her friends simply refused to inform her about their troubles with that small mafia Famiglia...

"Hmm, it's not like we have been abandoned though. I can see that our teacher still cares about us." Alex smiled fondly. "...You know that you shouldn't follow strangers, right Elena?"

"Call it stupidity or a woman's intuition, I believe that I can trust you and that we're going to be friends."

"Kufufufu, that sounds good, Elena. Now... let's do our groceries!"

"Sure!" Elena replied. Despite having only just met Alex and despite the fact that he looked a suspicious lot like a woman, she could tell that she was going to like his company...

And the fact that everything that she wanted to buy got huge discounts whenever she was with Alex was a nice bonus.

...

**Omake: official meetings**

"It is nice that he finally contacts us." Talbot grumbled as we walked to our unknown destination. "But even when he contacts us, he uses his annoying illusions and calls us to him!"

"Hmm, I use illusions too." I sweatdropped.

'Your illusions are different. You don't leave sand that I have to clean up whenever the illusion dissolves." Talbot nodded.

"Kufufufu, I personally think that you're just nervous about meeting possible new students that are more interesting than us." I chuckled. The soft chuckle turned onto an uncontrollable laughter when Tal began to blush though.

"S-shut up Alex!"

"Kufufu b-but kufufufu you're so cute when you act like kufufu that!" I laughed, earning a glare from the teen though the intensity of the glare was dimmed because of the blush.

"Come on Al, we're almost there!"

"Tell me when we kufufu have arrived and I'll stop kufufufu."

"But... we're already here..." Talbot sighed.

"Alex?"

"Knight-kun?"

"Lexy?"

I looked up at the familiar voices and smiled when I saw the familiar faces of people that I've come to know in the last years before tilting my head in confusion. Wasn't this the place where Talbot and I were supposed to meet our teacher?"

"Hello Knuckle, Asari, Lena. What are you doing here?" I asked my three friends.

"...You know these people?" A... strangely familiar blonde man asked the three I just greeted as he stared at me in confusion. I stared back in his orange eyes and tried to find out why he looked familiar. The man next to the blonde noticed me staring, but before the pink haired man could ask something my attention was taken by something else.

"You are hereby arrested until the interrogation is over, herbivore." I heard a certain man say as I felt a pair of handcuffs restraining my hands.

"Damn it, Alex. I've always known that you would be arrested someday." I heard Talbot whisper.

"...Thanks" I whispered sarcastically back before smiling wryly at the platinum blonde man that I've been avoiding for a long time already. "Good to see you too, officer."

"Hn."

"I see that you've met my two graduated students." An old man chuckled as he appeared next to me. I looked up at the sound of our teacher's voice and sighed when I saw the illusion that he used to disguise himself. Disguise number eight, the disguise that consisted of an old man with long silver hair and the usual tribal clothing.

"I would like to say that it's good to see you again, teacher, but right now I just want to ask why you call us your 'graduated' students." I sighed.

"Haven't I given you free reign over the workplace around a half year ago?"

"...you just told us to look after the shop and sheep." Talbot sweatdropped.

"Oh... then you are officially graduated now. Congratulations."

"...Are you serious?" I sighed as I tried to make an illusionary key to free my hands.

"Yep." The old man nodded.

"Great." I muttered as my hands were finally freed from the handcuffs because of the illusionary key. "Let me guess, these are our juniors?"

"Yep."

"You could at least have told us about them." Talbot pouted.

"Well... I forgot?" Talbot and I looked at our teacher before looking at each other again and sighing in defeat. This was what we has to deal with in our daily life's.

"It seems that you know most of my new students already, Alex." Our disguised teacher smirked. I rolled my eyes at that before looking at the familiar faces that have been gathered here. The carefree Japanese, the Extreme boxer, the nice young lady that accompanies me when I went to the market, the police officer that I've been avoiding and the obnoxious green haired man. Even the blonde man and the pink haired man felt familiar though I couldn't remember where I've met them.

"Yes, I know quite a lot of these people." I nodded while ignoring some obnoxious exclamations of a certain green haired man. "I just didn't know that they were all connected to each other..."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**This chapter was finished before the first chapter of the varia arc, so here it is! The first meetings between Alexis/Zero and the guardians! I added Elena as well because... she is Elena and she proves that a woman's intuition can be better than hyper intuitions sometimes, Giotto wasn't able to recognize Alexis after all... don't follow strangers in real life though. It is dangerous to follies strangers! And now some explanations about the timeline:**

**Alexis was six when she met Daemon and eleven when she was forced to take a different identity. This means that when she met G, Giotto and Cozart when she was seventeen, she was already disguising herself as a guy. The reason why she was dressed as a girl at their meeting was because she lost a bet with her teacher... anyways, she was eighteen at her meetings with Knuckle, Alaude and Asari and nineteen when she met Lampo and Elena. And in the omake she would be around twenty... and Talbot would be around seventeen in the omake. **

**And a small explanation of why Alexis could speak Dutch: in this time period, the Netherlands was the only country that had contact with Japan and one of the greatest business countries of the world if my history is right. And because Alexis was born in a family of businessmen she has learned Dutch from her grandfather.**

**'Buon giorno, signore. Ti sei perso?' Means: good morning, sir. Are you lost? in italian. And 'Ik kan je niet verstaan' means: I don't understand what you're saying, in Dutch. Thank god for Google translate.**

**(Yes, I know that hair gel didn't exist back then, but they got them**** a shady man... aka, our dearest teacher that defies logic)**

**Now on to the replies to the reviews!**

**Thanks for your opinion Reaper Sempai and I think that Reborn in overprotective brother mode is going to appear in the Varia arc... *smiles evilly.**

**That sounds about right, Grizzmon.**

**Thanks for loving it ADDBaby (^▽^).**

**Yep, Zero, or rather Alexis, was the poor tutor Stellar Nymph. **

**Well, as a chocolate lover Zero has good taste, mysterious guest :).**

**The mist trio sounds pretty funny actually, Windwhistle21... and then I found out that all three of them love chocolate. I think that the chocolate stash is in danger with the mist trio D:.**

**To Raven-V-Blackshade, I used to watch Yu-Gi-Oh when I was younger :D. And thanks once again.**

**The next chapter will be the first chapter of the Varia arc... though I think that it will be more like a recap of what happens in the one month skip. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 28: lifestyle

"So… what is it this time?" Hana asked me when I took another sip of my hot chocolate. I looked up at the girl and tilted my head in confusion.

"What are you talking about, Hana-san?" I asked.

"I've always thought that you were difficult to read, but it is pretty obvious when something is bothering you. And something tells me that the fact that our resident demon-prefect called you to his office today isn't the cause." The girl pointed out before putting a forkful of cake in her mouth. I looked at my cup of hot chocolate before shaking my head slowly, this wasn't a matter that we should discuss in a small café while we were waiting for Kyoko... or a matter that we should discuss at all, but knowing Hana...

"Indeed." I sighed. Hibari called me to the reception room to interrogate me about Mukuro and his whereabouts. Probably to bite him to death for whatever he did to Nanimori citizens and most likely as revenge as well. Though this was very annoying, I couldn't enroll Chrome to Nanimori middle yet because of this, it wasn't the main cause of my uneasiness. "…Uncle Seth is on the verge on exploding again."

"…Damn, now I understand why you are clutching your cup like that." A paling Hana nodded. "The last time that this uncle exploded was during parents visitation day right?"

"When Shamal kind of mentioned that it was a miracle that I haven't a boyfriend yet? That explosion was a small one. The last time was… nevermind." I sighed. The last time was at Kokuyo health land, but I shouldn't be telling Hana about this.

"What is the cause this time?"

"Hmm it's complicated-"

"Sorry that I'm late!" Kyoko apologized as she approached our table.

"Kufufufu, it's fine Kyoko-san." I chuckled.

"What is complicated?" Kyoko asked when she sat down in the empty seats around the table.

"Why her calmer uncle is on the verge of exploding." Hana sighed. "Explain it anyways."

"Alright, I have an… e-mail buddy." I began while replacing 'student-that-I-taught-in-an-illusionary-world' with an 'e-mail buddy'.

"E-mail buddy?" Hana asked. "The modern version of a pen pal?"

"Yes, we had been in contact for a long time though we lost contact six… months ago."

"How?" Kyoko asked. I sweatdropped when I noticed how attentively she was actually listening to this half-true story. When I noticed that even Hana was paying more attention to my story than to her cake I started to wonder if I was using mafia-seduction unconsciously again… hopefully not.

"Because of a failure in the e-mail systems in Italy that forced us to change our account. We were anonymous e-mail buddies, so we didn't know where the other lived or how the other looked like. And without our e-mail addresses… we simply lost contact."

"Let me guess, you never told your uncles about this and they found out?" Hana guessed.

"Hmm… kind of, but that isn't why they are angry." I sighed. "He found out that I lived here through a mutual acquaintance and came here. And because he had some family troubles… he now lives with me with his band of misfits."

"And those guys are annoying your uncle?" Hana questioned.

"It's more like… they have lived with us for almost one month already and a lot has happened. I learned how to communicate with someone who is even less talkative than Hibari-san and I found out that one alarm clock isn't enough to wake up a supposedly normal teenage girl and that my refrigerator was… that it had a lock." I sighed. Though this all did add up to Seth's annoyance, it was something entirely else that made him explode.

Sure, it was kind of troubling to learn how to properly communicate with Chikusa, it was kind of annoying how M.M. would wake everyone up with her alarm clocks and how Ken somehow managed to raid the fridge ten times while it was properly armed with special glue guns… or improperly. I mean, who arms a fridge?

_My Famiglia apparently._

It took ages before I got the kitchen clean again… Ahem, straying off the topic.

It was Mukuro who managed to get Seth in this state the most. My uncles have replaced the lock on my door three times in an attempt to keep Mukuro away from me and my bed. Sadly enough for them, Mukuro always managed to bypass that lock…

Maybe I shouldn't have taught him how to make illusionary keys, I should have known that he would use this skill against me. It was almost sad how I got _used_ to waking up with Muku-chan next to me.

_And then there was Chrome._

Though my uncles did like Chrome, it kind of shocked us when she and Mukuro returned from their trip to her old house to retrieve her stuff… only to find out that they didn't take a lot and that Chrome returned with a pineapple hairstyle.

_It took me two cups of hot chocolate and some oddly _therapeutic_ paperwork to recover from the shock._

The fact that she started to call Mukuro 'Mukuro-sama' definitely added up to the stress of my poor uncle… though I did find out that she had the talent to become a metal craftsman. I was actually considering teaching her how to make flame resistant weapons, but my last attempt of teaching someone how to do that ended up in an almost destroyed garage.

Renato was _not _suited to be a metal craftsman.

And then I found out that she had mist flames as well and having three mist flame users under one roof was kind of... _Well, at least I can teach her how to make her own illusionary organs now? _

"… The stress kind of added up." I sighed as I shook my head in defeat. I still hadn't decided if letting Mukuro help me with training Chrome was a bad idea or a _very_ bad idea. I was pretty sure that she didn't have such a wonderfully... _creative_ mind before I allowed Mukuro to assist me.

"Really?" Kyoko sighed. "It does sound like you have fun though."

"Hmm… actually, yes." I flower-smiled. "Despite the trouble that Muku-chan has brought us, I'm really happy that we actually found each other again."

"Oya? I'm glad that I found you too, my dear Zero." A voice that I recognized stated behind me. I turned around in the chair and sighed when I saw Mukuro and Chrome behind me in the café.

"Who is this, Zero?" Hana asked me.

"Hana-san, Kyoko-san. These are Rokudo Mukuro and Estraneo-Dokuro Chrome. Muku-chan, Chrome-chan. These are Kurokawa Hana and Sasagawa Kyoko" I introduced them.

"Nice to meet you." Mukuro smirked before pulling a chair from another table and joining our table.

"N-nice to meet you." Chrome stuttered before joining the table as well.

"Sure." Hana nodded before raising an eyebrow at me. "So this is your e-mail buddy?"

"Kufufufu, yes." I laughed.

"Nice to meet you then." Kyoko flower-smiled. "Are you guys related to each other? You two look alike… though Chrome-chan has the same last name as you, Zero-chan."

""Well-" I began, but Mukuro interrupted me.

"Chrome and I are cousins and Chrome is adopted into Zero's family. Without her, my dearest Zero and I wouldn't have been able to meet each other." He answered the question with smooth lies. Chrome looked confusedly at me at this and I nodded as a sign to play along.

"Really?" Hana smirked. "This kind of sounds like some kind of weird love story…"

"What are you talking about?" I sweatdropped.

"You see, my dear Zero. Our relationship has been accepted already." Mukuro grinned. "Now we only have to decide where our honeymoon is going to be held, I vote for the cliff."

"M-Mukuro!" I blushed. Like I guessed, he was never going to let me forget about this… but did he really have to tease me like this all the time? This is another one of the reasons why Seth in his explosive state!

"M-Mukuro-sama, we should do what we came for." Chrome chuckled at our antics.

"Kufufu, that is right. Zero, your uncles are wondering whether you've seen the essay about the use of the color green." Mukuro said. I paled when I heard that. The 'essay about the use of the color green' was a code that translates in: 'Verde did it again and now we have more paperwork'.

"I'm coming." I nodded before saying my goodbyes and leaving with Mukuro and Chrome.

…

I was halfway the paperwork, that was less than expected but still more than I hoped for, in the next day when M.M. waltzed in my room and opened my wardrobe.

"What are you doing?" I asked confused when she proceeded pulling my clothes out of the green painted wardrobe.

"I've ran out of clothes to wear." M.M. answered before continuing whatever she was trying to accomplish by throwing my clothes on the floor.

"…That doesn't really answer my question." I sweatdropped. There was actually no way that she would be able to fit into my clothes, so it would make more sense if she looked into Chrome's wardrobe… which didn't contain a lot, if I had to admit it. She didn't take a lot with her from her old house and with her determination to learn the art of illusions, we haven't really found a chance to go shopping for clothes yet.

"Seriously Zero, it's like your wardrobe only consists of whites, purples and school uniforms." M.M. scolded me while ignoring what I just said.

"What is going on here?" Chikusa asked in his curious, but still monotone, tone while he walked in with the other residents of the house. I sighed and put my pen down again, why was I even trying to do paperwork in this room anyways? Everyone invades my bedroom these days!

"Tell Zero that she has a terrible fashion sense." M.M. commanded them.

"I-I don't think that her fashion sense is terrible." Chrome smiled reassuring at me. "I think it's very cute."

"That is exactly what is so terrible about it. There are no clothes that would make her stand out! And all the colors are the same!"

"Hmm… I'm just used to these colors and I actually like nonsuspicious clothes. I don't like to stand out." I sweatdropped.

"Why would you?" M.M. looked offended. "You and I are going to shop for clothes. Right now."

"Don't drag Zero with you byon! She will die of exhaustion or she will have no money left afterwards!" Ken shouted, apparently a bit too familiar with her shopping routines.

"About the money…" I sweatdropped. "I have enough of that to live at least five lifetimes without working." This earned very surprised and disbelieving looks from Ken and M.M., a slightly amused look from Mukuro and Chikusa and a confused look from my uncles and Chrome. They already knew about it and probably wondered why I had to mention this. I shrugged and wrote an estimate of what was on my bank account on a piece of paper.

"How… did you get that money?" M.M. asked perplexed when she saw the numbers. I tilted my head in both confusion and amusement.

"You know that I am a mafia-boss, right?" I asked. "My Famiglia is an inventors-Famiglia. Eighty percent of the profits that they earn from their inventions is theirs and the other twenty percent is used to provide materials and food."

"All that is not used after that is rightfully Zero's." Chris nodded.

"And she earns money by selling her flame-resistant weapons too… which earns the most money out of all the weapons we sell, by the way." Seth added.

"How do you think that I'm paying for your food and other living expenses?" I sweatdropped when I saw the realization dawn on M.M. and Ken.

"Shopping. Us. Now." M.M. stated as she started to drag me away from my chair and paperwork. I sent the others in my room a desperate look, procrastination will only increase the paperwork that I'll have to do later on, especially when it concerns Verde, but was mostly ignored. Only after using my puppy eyes I managed to get a reaction from Mukuro… to hide me with an illusion so they woulnd't have to see me.

_Was shopping with M.M. that bad?_

…

"Thank you Chrome-chan." I smiled weakly at the girl. She was the only one who in the end caved in and decided to accompany us to the shopping center.

"It's fine Zero-chan." Chrome smiled bravely, but I could see a small hint of regret, which wasn't really a miracle. It was like M.M. was determined to begin a store or something with all the clothes that she wanted to buy. And all the clothes that she wanted us to wear…

_I suddenly understand why no one wanted to come along._

"Try this one too, Zero." M.M. beamed. Well, at least someone had some fun.

"Isn't this a bit… no." I sighed.

"Why not? It would look nice on you." M.M. asked while raising an eyebrow, like I had offended her by questioning her fashion sense.

"It's too… actually, what is it?" I sweatdropped. The rather revealing thing in M.M.'s hands had to be underwear or something like that.

"Shorts." M.M. deadpanned.

"Short indeed…" I muttered while trying to find a way to distract the red haired girl. "What about that?" I asked innocently while pointing at something less revealing.

"Acceptable." M.M. nodded as she dropped the 'shorts' and approached the skirt. I looked at Chrome and nodded at the same time as the purple haired girl. While M.M. was still distracted we made an illusion of us and left the clothing section with Chrome.

"Don't you think that she will be upset?" Chrome asked after a little while. I looked up at the worried thirteen years old girl and sighed.

"Yes she will, but it was either her or us…"

"I think that this is going to end up badly." Chrome sighed.

"Without a doubt." I nodded.

"Without a doubt." M.M. agreed… _wait what?_ I looked at the red haired girl that appeared out of nowhere with… damn how many bags of clothes was she carrying?!

"M-M.M-san?" Chrome stuttered.

"Now… whose idea was it?" M.M. smirked as she showed us what she bought, making Chrome and me pale at the sight of whatever the bags contained. I looked at a truly horrified Chrome and back at M.M., who was way too amused, before I sighed.

_The things I do for family..._

…

"S-stop staring at me." I blushed as Chrome and M.M. just kept on gaping at me in the changing room that the clothing shop nicely let us use... to my horror.

"B-but that suits you…" Chrome muttered before taking a camera that appeared out of nowhere, a skill that she learned from Chris, and taking pictures of me.

The traitor.

"I knew that my sense of fashion was the best of all of us." M.M. nodded satisfied.

"I-I don't want to walk around in this." I pouted. "It's too... _attention-grabbing_!" I don't mind wearing clothes like this, but wearing anything that made me stand out in the crowd went against all my teachings. I was taught to _hide _myself, not to show everyone where I was! Plus, these clothes were pretty uncomfortable.

"Just stand still for a little longer..." M.M. hummed as she pulled a huge blue ribbon from one of the many shopping bags and placing the frilly object on my head. "Done."

I looked reflection in the mirror in horror. Not because the sky blue dress wasn't cute, but because the frills, laces and ribbons made me look like a living doll in combination with my naturally pale skin... even the blush on my face looked like the blushes painted on those porcelain dolls.

"I almost look like I could play in a horror movie." I muttered as I tried to ignore the sounds of Chrome's camera and M.M.'s selfpraising words. I never noticed how scary it was to see how pale my skin was in certain clothes. I also made a mental note to wear this at Halloween when I suddenly got a really familiar feeling.

"What is wrong, Zero?" Chrome asked when my head jolted up in the direction where the feeling came from.

"No way... the rings?" I muttered when I recognized the familiar feeling close to where I was.

And I ran.

"VOI! Before you hand that over, in how many pieces do you want to get cut up in?" I heard an awfully familiar voice ask as I left the clothing shop. When I connected the voice to a face and the face to trouble I ran even faster while making myself invisible with illusions. As I ran, I noticed the destruction that was inflicted to the buildings around me, I wondered if getting used to explosions was going to get me into trouble one day since I haven't noticed _any_ sound that led to this destruction!

_They definitely aren't a theatre group!_

...

**Omake: gossips**

Hana watched Zero and her pineapple haired friends leaving the café until they were out of sight. She knew that Zero missed someone because, bluntly said, she wasn't blind.

The eleven years old girl who sat in front of her in school often had a look of nostalgia when she watched those monkeys, that she calls her friends, interact. And if those looks weren't enough, then there still was the faraway look in her eyes when she stared out of the window.

It almost hurt to see that kind of melancholy in her eyes.

So yes, Hana knew that Zero was missing someone in her life but she never imagined that person to be a guy... A guy of who Hana had to admit that he was handsome in the 'badboy' way. No wonder that the calmer uncle was on the verge of exploding if they lived under the same roof now.

"So, Rokudo Mukuro and Estraneo-Dokuro Chrome..." Hana mused. She was sure that a lot was going to change with these new people around Zero, she always attracted the weirdest kinds of people...

"Chrome-chan looks nice." Kyoko smiled. "But I don't like Rokudo-san."

If Hana would have been drinking something, then she would have spat it out when she heard her best friend admitting that. Luckily for Hana, she wasn't drinking anything so she could only choke on plain air and cough in surprise while staring at Kyoko in confusion.

"Why?" Hana coughed.

"Because of how he looks at Zero-chan." Kyoko pouted. "He obviously _like_ likes her, but Zero-chan looks so much better with Tsuna-kun."

"...What are you saying Kyoko?" Hana sweatdropped. She knew that her best friend was dense, but how couldn't she see that it was _her _that the pathetic monkey liked and not the albino girl...

"Tsuna-kun's way of looking at Zero-chan has been changing..." Kyoko explained. "At first he looked at her like she was a confusing, like he couldn't decide if he should be fearing her or respecting her. But then he started to look at her as a friend and recently I could even see something in his eyes that tells me that he thinks that Zero-chan could be more than a friend! If I'm not seeing it wrong, he might even want to be closer to her than he already is!"

"Really?" Hana muttered.

"Yes, though Zero-chan usually misunderstands the motives of the ones around her. She gets a lot of misunderstandings, you know? But it is kind of romantic as well." Kyoko sighed dreamily. "Love despite age and differences. I wished that I had someone that liked me like that as well..."

"Damn, now I think about it... I should write this down. This really sounds like some kind of love story that would sell nicely." Hana muttered as she looked for pen and paper in her bag. "You're right, Kyoko, Zero _does_ have this kind misunderstandings... You are actually kind of sharp, Kyoko." _though only when it doesn't concern you._

"And don't forget Zero-chan's budding friendship with Hibari-sempai!" Kyoko flower-smiled. Hana gave a look at her best friend before sighing and returning her attention to finding paper.

Nevermind, Kyoko was still as dense as always because Zero _feared _Hibari... _right?_

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Like I suspected, this chapter was more a recap of what happened in the one month skip, but it was fun to write. A few facts:  
_One_, shopping with M.M. is almost as bad as shopping with your mother, grandmother, best friend and siblings combined.  
_Two_, Zero earns a lot of money... but deasn't really care about it because she doesn't need it. All of the money is put in a bank account and the amount of money is still rising.  
_Three_, the glue that is used to arm the fridge is the same kind of glue that managed to stick Verde to the ceiling a few chapters ago.  
And _four_, I totally forgot about Byakuran being another possible love interest! But would that be counted as narcissism since Zero and Byakuran look alike (or at least in their coloring)?**

**Thanks, ****n1ghtdr34m3r :).**

**Hmm, a good guess, mysterious guest. But no, though the teacher has a connection to Kawahira.**

***reads ADDBaby's review. *looks at a picture of the first generation. *laughs madly because they really _are _the rainbow.**

**I see what you did there Reaper Senpai XD. And about the Varia... Zero never had the chance to meet Xanxus, Squalo, Levi, Lussaria and sadly enough Fran. She may or may not have met someone who could have been related to Belphegor, but not Bel himself, and she may or may not have been friends with Viper as Renata...**

**Though Zero has a lot of experience from her past life's, she isn't _really_ old and powerful ****Grizzmon. In every life she has to train her body again like every child, though this life seems to be an exception, and the only skills she could use without extra training are her skills in cooking, card games, illusions and ballroom dancing. So she isn't _really _old and powerful... she just has a lot of experience that she could use.**

**I don't think that it's bad to ship them, ****Alice aquabld. Mostly because I began to ship them myself halfway writing that chapter...**

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 29: just when I thought nothing could get worse

One month. It took one month of well-earned peace before everything went wrong again. What had Tsuna ever done wrong to deserve this? The fact that he was going to become a mafia boss was already enough to freak the brunet out and the fact that all of his friends ended up being weirdoes was enough to give him a mental breakdown… if Reborn would allow that of course.

And then his not-so-peaceful life had to get even more hectic because of a certain pineapple haired teen that just _had _to invade Nanimori because of a _misunderstanding_! Even when the fight was over Mukuro managed to make Tsuna's life a living hell, simply by living together with Zero. Reborn had never been so scary before Mukuro and his gang started to live under the same roof as his supposed sister in a past life.

And just when Tsuna thought that nothing could get worse… this long haired man appeared.

"VOI! Before you hand that over, in how many pieces do you want to get cut up in?" The said man asked loudly.

_None, I like to be in one piece_, Tsuna thought while looking for a way out of this situation. Why was another _dangerous _weirdo invading the once peaceful Nanimori? Tsuna refused to believe that the reasons were mere rings.

The said rings that were _innocently _displayed in the small opened box in his hands.

"Lord Sawada, don't hand over the rings to him." Basil, the teen with the blue dying will flame and the teen who _kindly _delivered the rings to Tsuna, frowned.

"I wasn't planning to! And what is going on here?!" Tsuna voiced his thoughts and when he realized that he actually said that out loud he slowly inched away from the white haired man. He didn't meant to say that out loud… especially not now Tsuna has seen the murderous expression on the face of the destructive stranger.

"You're just like always, Suberbi Squalo. Isn't it embarrassing, being so rough with children?" A familiar voice saved Tsuna from his doom.

"Di-Dino-san!" Tsuna shouted in relieve by the appearance of the blonde and the men wearing suits behind him. Let's not forget about them.

"If you don't stop this distasteful game of yours, I'll be your opponent." Dino warned Squalo. The said man seemed to think about that before smirking and shouting again.

"VOOOI Bucking Horse. I have no problems with killing you right here and right now, but if I fight people from allied families the higher ups will be nagging me!" He began before suddenly grabbing Tsuna by his hair. "For today I'll quietly… NOT GO HOME!"

"Let him go!" Dino shouted before attacking Squalo, but the man expected that attack and blocked it and the impact created a smoke screen.

"Damn that man." Dino frowned as he ran in the cloud of smoke. "Are you guys ok?"

"We're fine, Dino-dono." Basil coughed. "But where are the rings?"

"Hieee? I had them just now!" Tsuna shrieked.

"I'll be taking this." Squalo smirked with the box that contained the rings in his hand before running off in an incredible speed.

"T-the Vongola rings!" Basil shouted before attempting to follow Squalo. Tsuna looked at wounded teen in half-confusion and half-realization. Of course this was connected to the Vongola. All of his troubles began with the mafia somehow…

"Hmm… those aren't the Vongola rings as I remember them." Another familiar voice stated almost hesitantly.

"Hieee?! Ze…ro?" Tsuna shrieked, but he couldn't see the girl anywhere. Basil, who heard the girl too, stopped in his tracks. Just before falling on his knees because of his wounds and fatigue.

"W-who was that?" Basil asked weakly.

"Ciaossu, Zero. You are still invisible, by the way." Reborn stated.

"Hmm, I am? Kufufufu, sorry about that." Zero chuckled sheepishly before slowly appearing out of nowhere. Now, Tsuna was kind of used to that, since Zero had appeared out of nowhere for quite a few times already. This meant that he was prepared to expect the albino girl to appear out of nowhere… but he wasn't prepared to see a half-transparent and feetless human-sized doll that floated a few centimeters above the ground.

In a situation like this, there was only one thing that Tsuna could do… _faint_.

…

"…You are still half-transparent, Zero." Reborn informed me after giving Tsuna a disappointed look.

"I know…" I sighed. "But I'd rather avoid any chance of showing myself to Squalo."

"This might sound stupid… but you are really 'here', aren't you?" Dino asked me nervously after helping the blonde boy who also fainted. Though I wasn't sure if he fainted because of my appearance or because of his wounds and fatigue.

"..Yes?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"Great, it's like every time I see you, you are kind of…" The blonde boss tried to explain, but he couldn't find the right word.

"A ghost?" I suggested. That was what a lot of people lately called me after all and I was wearing an outfit that could be considered... ghostly? In my opinion it made me look more like a living, half transparent, doll instead of a ghost though.

"Kind of?" Dino admitted sheepishly. "I mean, you kind of made Tsuna and Basil faint with your... half-appearance and you always appear out of nowhere whenever I see you."

"I didn't mean to make them faint, I just wanted to stay hidden…" I pouted, though I had to admit that these reactions would be kind of hilarious if the situation wasn't so serious. "M.M. made me dress up like this."

"…We have to give them medical help." Reborn stated after a moment of awkward silence.

"Sure, I'll call uncle Seth…" I offered, but then I remembered that I was literally dragged out of my house, which meant that I never had the chance to take my bag with me. "Sorry, I forgot my phone today…"

"It's alright Zero, you can go home. We will take care of this." Reborn sighed. "Though… what did you mean about the Vongola rings?"

"Hmm… they don't feel exactly the same as I remember it." I admitted before realizing that I could still feel the presences of the rings here… just ... "A part of the presences of the rings is still here. In your pocket actually, Dino-san."

"…How did you know that the real rings are in my pocket?" Dino asked incredulously.

"I didn't, but now I know… they don't feel 'complete' though." I whispered the last part and Dino paled.

"…That was stupid, Dino. You couldn't even keep a simple secret." Reborn stated after Dino finishing cursing himself in silence. "And Zero?"

"Yes Reborn?"

"Expect a visit soon." The 'you have a lot to explain' and 'prepare your student' went unsaid, but I could easily see the demands in Reborn's eyes.

"…Sure." I nodded before walking back to the shop to find the girls.

…

It was only after dinner when I managed to face Mukuro without him laughing madly at me again or without him taking pictures of me blushing madly. I didn't mind wearing these kind of clothes, though they are not my preference, but it was the teasing, laughing and the pictures that made me unable to face anyone before and during dinner without blushing. Even when I had changed out of that outfit they continued laughing and taking pictures.

Seriously, I think that Chris and Mukuro took more pictures than Chrome did and she had a headstart…

"Mukuro?"

"Kufufu, yes Zero?"

"…It's about the- Can you stop laughing please?!" I asked when he ended up laughing again, which resulted in everyone around the table laughing, giggling or smiling 'emotionlessly' in Chikusa's case.

"But you managed to knock mafia members out by just appearing byon." Ken laughed. I scowled at that and decided to give up on informing Mukuro about the Vongola rings for now.

"I'm going to do paperwork." I muttered before leaving the dining table. At least paperwork won't laugh at me... _physically._

…

**BOOOOOM **

"Ken are you raiding the fridge again?!" I shouted as I woke up in my bed. I frowned in confusion as I didn't remember going to bed I and was still wearing my casual clothes too… I remembered doing my paperwork… and maybe falling asleep during my paperwork. Maybe someone carried me to my bed? Maybe Mukuro?

…_Where is that guy anyways_, I wondered in my half-sleeping daze. For a change, he wasn't sleeping in my bed as I woke up like usual. I looked at the clock on the wall and almost went back asleep when I saw that it was only around five in the morning. It was too early to bother but I knew that I had something to do.

"…Kitchen." I yawned as I stumbled out of my bed. I honestly had no idea of how I managed to walk to the kitchen with my eyes closed… I honestly had no idea how I survived without falling from the stairs for that matter, but I managed to get to the kitchen safely. When I opened my eyes in the kitchen again I had to close them immediately because of the bright light.

"Ken, have you raided the fridge again? And do you know where Muku-chan is? He wasn't in my bed…" I muttered before opening my eyes again and trying to get used to the bright light.

"…It was worse than I feared." My babyfied brother muttered from wherever he was standing in my kitchen. Mukuro was there too, he was aiming his trident at a very surprised blonde man that I vaguely remembered from... somewhere.

"…What are you guys doing in this house at this hour?" I glared at the intruders before yawning, something that destroyed any effectiveness that the glare could have had.

"I told you to expect a visit." Reborn smiled innocently, though it was plain visible that the smile was very forced.

"Not. So. Early. In. the. Morning." I scowled before yawning again and almost falling asleep on my feet. No wait. Need to be awake. Why again? O, that is right…

"Why are you awake, Zero?" someone asked.

"Ken raiding fridge." I answered, too tired to make full sentences or to actually recognize the owner of the voice that asked that question, but it was probably Reborn… or Mukuro… or that other person. Who was he again?

"Ken isn't raiding the fridge this time, my dear Zero. It was these men." Someone informed me. Probably Mukuro… or the other two.

"Why you here?" I mumbled a question.

"It's about the Vongola rings." Someone stated, effectively waking me up from the daze in an instant. I looked at the man who said that, then at Reborn and lastly at a very confused Mukuro before noticing the mess in my kitchen.

"What the hell happened here?"

…

"Are you sure about this guy?" Iemitsu asked Reborn when they were standing in front of a green house. The blonde tried to understand why he agreed on making Rokudo Mukuro the mist guardian of his own son. _That guy is a criminal that wanted to take over my son's body!_

"It was all a misunderstanding." Reborn commented on the unvoiced opinion before walking to the side of the green house, he knew how to get in without using the doors. "But he is the only one who is qualified enough to be the mist guardian… Though I hope for his own sake that he hasn't done anything to Zero or there will be no mist guardian."

"Why not this girl that you speak so fondly about. What about _this_ skilled illusionist or her other student?" Iemitsu asked before following the best hitman in the world.

"Zero is not able to become the mist guardian, but I prefer her over that pineapple. And her other student is a beginner, that Mukuro is only the second best option." Reborn admitted as he broke into the heavily secured house. If that Verde wasn't so annoying, Reborn would have admired the security… But fortunately, Reborn couldn't stand him so he was all too happy to bypass that security with practiced ease.

"But Rokudo Mukuro?" Iemitsu muttered as the unusual duo entered the kitchen safely. "I can't imagine that kid being a part of the Vongola…"

"Kufufu, I can't either but it still happened." Someone chuckled mirthlessly as that person turned on the lights in the kitchen.

"Rokudo Mukuro." Reborn nodded mockingly at the teen.

"Arcobaleno." Mukuro nodded back with the same tone. "Funny that you needed to come in this house like this. Has Zero locked you out?"

"You wished that she would." Reborn retorted and Iemitsu sweatdropped at the childish display. Who would have thought that the ever cool-minded almighty Reborn would ever partake in such a childish arguement? Not him, definitely not Iemitsu. And yet, Iemitsu was forced to look at the best hitman in the world arguing with someone that he considered a criminal and yet had to appoint as one of the most trusted people of his dear son...

It was too early in the morning to think about this, he decided. He looked around in the greenness of the kitchen and smiled when he saw the only object that wasn't green: the fridge. If he could believe what Reborn told him about this household, there should surely be some kind of alcohol here. Especially since there was no 'mother-figure' to stop the grown men.

"What are you doing?" Mukuro asked and Iemitsu found himself staring at a trident which was aimed at him.

"Nothing." The blonde answered. "Why are you awake, Rokudo Mukuro?"

"My dear Zero wanted to tell me something after dinner, but she never managed to tell me what. I personally thought that it had something to do with the arcobaleno though, so I decided to greet you." Mukuro smirked.

"Zero never managed to tell you? Or were you simply too distracted to listen?" Reborn asked nonchalantly, gaining one annoyed glare from a pineapple haired teen and evading one stab from a trident.

Iemitsu, once again, sweatdropped at this scene and decided that he really needed some booze now. He shook his head and opened the fridge, expecting to find something to drink.

He never expected the fridge to disagree with him and aim some installed guns at him.

"What the-"

**BOOOOOM**

"-is happening?" Iemitsu shouted as he evaded the mess that the fridge shot at him. He looked at the glue that was everywhere now and wondered why the hell the fridge was armed.

"Oya oya, look at what you have done now." Mukuro stated as he aimed his trident at the Italian blonde again. For a moment, the man feared that he had to fight the teen seriously when he saw the number six in the red eye of Mukuro glow eerily, but he was saved by a very sleepy voice.

"Ken, have you raided the fridge again? And do you know where Muku-chan is? He wasn't in my bed…" A small girl with bed hair mumbled almost inaudibly soft. And Iemitsu wondered if he was really saved when he saw the murderous expression on Reborn's face.

"…It was worse than I feared." The said hitman muttered darkly before glaring at Mukuro again, who gave a triumphant look back but did not move away his weapon from Iemitsu's throat.

"…What are you guys doing in this house at this hour?" The girl tried to glare, but it was very ineffective as she yawned cutely immediately afterwards.

"I told you to expect a visit." Reborn smiled innocently, though Iemitsu could see the brooding expression underneath that smile. Reborn was planning something. Something that would most likely mean the end of Mukuro... or something like that. Iemitsu had no idea why Reborn needed to plan something like that though.

"Not. So. Early. In. the. Morning." The girl pouted before wobbling dangerously and yawning in drowsiness.

"Why are you awake, Zero?" Reborn asked.

"Ken raiding fridge." The girl muttered. Iemitsu took the chance to observe the girl and made a mental note that this was the skilled illusionist that Reborn for some reason couldn't recruit. He also noticed that she was faintly familiar… Where had he seen that white hair and violet eyes before? His intuition told him that she wasn't a Gesso even though the heir of the Gesso family had the same coloring. No, he had seen this girl before, Iemitsu just couldn't tell from when.

"Ken isn't raiding the fridge this time, my dear Zero. It was these men." Mukuro smiled at the girl and Iemitsu made another mental note that this was the first genuine smile that he saw on Mukuro's face this morning.

"Why you here?" the girl asked before wobbling again and almost falling asleep. Iemitsu decided to speak up now, to avoid her collapsing on the ground and creating a scene in which he definitely did not want to be a part of. Not with the best hitman in the world and the most doubtful future guardian of his dearest son.

"It's about the Vongola rings." He said, effectively waking the albino girl and earning a very confused look from the teen who was still pointing his very pointy weapon at him. Now he could finally do where he came for.

"What the hell happened here?" Zero asked in a calm and yet threatening voice.

_Or maybe not_.

…

**Omake: witness **

A few things are things that I should have expected, like all the inhabitants of my house _staring _at me in surprised silence when we reached home. The small moment of surprised silence, however, was broken after a few seconds by my dearest uncle Chris who let a small chuckle escape before pulling out a camera and snapping some pictures of me. Everything escalated after that and soon, everyone was laughing... except Chikusa, who was simply smiling. Some took even more pictures...

It all went worse when I tried to explain what happened in the shopping center, or rather when I told them what happened with Tsuna, and probably the other teen, when I half-appeared.

"T-they fainted?" Mukuro managed to ask between his laughs.

"H-how many times does this make?" Chris laughed.

"Wait, this has happened before byon?" Ken wheezed.

"Just a few times in meetings." I pouted. Because it wasn't very smart to reveal the fact that the boss of a Mafia Famiglia was only a child, the meetings were mostly handled by Chris in the past with me overseeing the meetings while I was invisible. But sometimes it simply went wrong. "I coulnd't help that I had to had to sneeze..." I mumbled. That caused another wave of uncontrollable laughter and I decided to change into my normal clothing while everyone was still distracted.

There was no way to get these people to stop laughing at me otherwise.

...

"Are you reading the newspaper again, uncle Chris?" I asked when I finished changing and made my way to the kitchen to cook dinner.

"Sometimes it's better to know whatever happens in the present-time, Zero-sama." Seth answered as Chris was too busy with reading to give an actual answer.

"True." Ken nodded.

"We used to read the Italian newspaper all the time back then." Chikusa continued. Mukuro and M.M. nodded in agreement and Chrome simply smiled.

"I watched the news on the television instead of reading the newspaper..."

"Really... So I am the only one who doesn't keep a tab on whatever is happening in the world." I mused before walking to the kitchen, but before I could enter the green kitchen Chris began to read an article out loud.

"Nanimori's resident ghost has made another appearance. A witness says: 'one moment she was there and then she was gone.' We will bring more news about our resident ghost the neighborhood as soon as possible."

"...Why are you all looking at me?" I asked after a small moment of silence. Then everyone began laughing again and I gave up. "Just when I thought that it couldn't get worse..."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**And now, the Varia arc will begin. More changes from the canon plotline will appear because Zero taught Mukuro and because... You'll see, Kufufufu. And I noticed that the relationship between Reborn and Mukuro is beginning to become... like Chris and Verde. Kind of. Yeah...**

**I'm not sure if this will become a multi or reverse harem, ****Alice aquabld, but _everything_ is possible ;).**

**She is indeed OLD... mentally, hoshikasa. And the age difference between Lambo and Zero is around the same as the age difference between Zero and Mukuro... plus I have my own reason of not wanting to pair Fran and Zero (You'll see why and probably agree with me in the future).**

**She can sense the real parts of the rings of a certain reason that will be explained in the future, Stellar Nymph. (And I noticed that I update like that, but only because I still have inspiration and because my vacation is boring without writing fanfiction or plotting kufufu).**

**That is exactly why there is only a really really tiny chance of her ending up with Hibari, Grizzmon. And personally I think that what Kyoko said about Zero and Hibari is indeed the case in the (near) future.**

**Hmm, I feel that all of that is true ddmahan922.**

**Yes, she knows Talbot, n1ghtdr34m3r. He actually appeared in the extra chapter XD. And yes, Renata should have been chosen as the mist arcobaleno if she didn't... die before Kawahira selected the new arcobaleno's. And checkerface... he knows about Zero to a certain extend... **

**I can totally see that happen, ADDBaby! I can see Nana being a huge TsunaXZero shipper and Chrome being a huge MukuroXZero shipper too! Let's not begin about Bianchi though... Zero and Tsuna would be totally confused about the sudden trend of e-mail buddies and shippers because they don't have the time to read the book and Mukuro probably read it, but likes to see them confused so he doesn't explain. (I have to stop plotting now because I am imagining Chrome writing fanfiction about this book)**

**We'll see about Byakuran, Raven-V-Blackshade and Elena N. I have a whole plot for that, kufufufu.**

**And to all my other reviewers: thank you for your compliment and/or support! Last chapter may or may not have given me tho most reviews up to now, I mean this story has more than 200 reviews now! So let's celebrate with another omake!**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 12**

It all began with the cat, of course it all began with the cat. Sometimes Renato wondered if the cat hated him or simply loved to torture him with its presence, but anyways it all began when the cat disappeared.

Renata, who loved the little grey demon, was worried that it might never come back but that worry was unneeded. Within two days the cat was returned by a... person who was wearing an indigo hoody. The hood kind of hid the face of the adult and the baggy clothing hid their figure, so Renato couldn't tell if it was a woman or a man.

"I guess that this cat is yours." They nodded as they tried to hand over the grey feline to Renato.

"It isn't mine." Renato replied, hoping to get rid of the cat. The cat hissed in response and jumped out of the hands of the hooded person. Chris looked smugly at Renato, he never knew that a cat could look smug, and walked through the opened door into the house. It didn't take too long before Renata ran to the door with the cat in her arms and one of the brightest smiles that Renato ever saw before.

"Thank you for returning Chris!" She smiled at the hooded person. The said person smiled at the black haired girl and gestured at a smaller figure behind their legs.

"It wasn't me which found it. I only helped with getting the cat out of the chimney, washing it and feeding it. I wasn't even the one who located you."

"Hmm, really? Thank you then, my name is Renata Sinclair." The younger Sinclair sibling smiled at the smaller version of the hooded person. Another person who seemed genderless to Renato though this one seemed to be around Renata's age.

"You're welcome." The hooded child nodded.

"We are your new neighbors." The older hooded person smiled. And Renato knew that this was the beginning of another headache.

He was right.

In the next few weekends, Renata would play with their new neighbor and Renato still couldn't see if the hooded child was a girl or a boy. And it gave him headaches. The thirteen years old boy couldn't decide if he needed to tell the kid to stay away from his little sister like with all the boys that tried to approach his sister or to thank them for taking care of her because he couldn't tell their gender... he decided to find out the gender first before making that decision.

"You know that we are being observed, right Nata?" The hooded child whispered while they and their new friend were drawing at Renata's home.

"Kufufufu, don't worry about it. It is my brother who is trying to find out your gender again." Renata replied before she continued coloring her family in a bright yellow color.

"How do you know that?"

"Kufufufu, experience." Renata chuckled exasperated but fondly as she twirled her yellow pencil in her left hand. "But he will never find out... right Vi-chan?"

"Muu, I'd like to see him try." Vi-chan smirked before trying to swirl their IKEA pencil around and dropping the small pencil in the process. The small wooden pencil fell to the ground and rolled underneath a bench and out of sight. The hooded child shrugged and took another IKEA pencil from her pencilcase.

"By the way, Vi-chan. How many IKEA pencils do you have?"

"...Don't complain, Nata. They are _free_."

"Kufufufu."

**I think that the identity of Vi-chan is very obvious, isn't it? Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 30: making a change in decisions

I sipped calmly from my cup of hot chocolate after I gave the three males on the couch a disappointed look, though only the blonde man seemed to be affected by it. Mukuro and Reborn looked highly amused by this situation instead. Maybe too amused.

"I guess that you are the one who tried to raid the fridge?" I sighed at the blonde man after I put my cup on the table. Though I said it as a question, it was more like a statement that needed confirmation and it made Mukuro and Reborn look even more amused than before.

""He did."" Mukuro and Reborn confirmed before glaring at each other. The man who was unfortunately sitting between them on the green couch cowered in something akin to fear and nodded sheepishly.

"Haha… I did?" He admitted hesitantly. I nodded in response and gave him a reassuring smile.

"You're not the only one who _tried_ it, but you are the first one who didn't succeed." I smiled. Mukuro and Reborn returned to their amused mood and chuckled when the man started to blush slightly. "…So, you have come for the Vongola rings?"

"The Vongola rings?" Mukuro frowned.

"Yes." The blonde man nodded, recovering from his blush and turning serious in a speed that I wouldn't have expected from someone who would try to raid a fridge. "Rokudo Mukuro, you are hereby appointed as the mist guardian of the future Vongola Decimo, Sawada Tsunayoshi. And you are to battle for him against the Varia in the upcoming ring battles."

"And what if I refuse?" Mukuro asked.

"You are already part of the Vongola." Reborn stated. "It's not like you have much of a choice… sadly enough."

"Oya, what if I _refuse_?" Mukuro asked again, though this time it sounded more like a statement than like a question.

"You have _not _much of a choice." Reborn stated again, though this time it sounded more forceful.

"Are they always like this?" The blonde man between them asked me while resisting the urge to run away.

"Sadly enough… more often than not." I sighed. I wondered why this always seemed to happen when the two were put together, if they were apart from each other they act completely different… or at least this seemed to be the case to me. I made a mental note to ask them later before remembering that I've never heard the name of the blonde man. "Who are you by the way?"

"I haven't introduced myself yet?" The blonde asked me as he tried to ignore the bickering behind him. I shook my head in response and the man laughed sheepishly. "Haha, I'm sorry about that. My name is Sawada Iemitsu, the leader of the CEDEF."

"Sawada as in Sawada Tsunayoshi?" I asked as I tilted my head in confusion. He was related to Tsuna? An uncle maybe? His father was never home and Tsuna doesn't talk about him, so I assumed that he was dead… And the leader of the CEDEF? Was CEDEF safe in his hands? He looks a lot more irresponsible than Alaude…

"That is my son." Iemitsu smiled brightly and I blinked in surprise. I really thought that Tsuna's father was dead.

"…Right." I nodded. Maybe he divorced with Nana and now he lives in Italy for his job… yes, that would explain his absence in the Nanimori and the fact that Tsuna never told me about his father. "Nice to meet you, Sawada-san. I am Estraneo Zero."

"…Now I remember you!" Iemitsu exclaimed suddenly. I winched at the volume and prayed that he didn't wake up Seth. Although we are all used to explosions because of the Neo Estraneo, shouts can easily wake him up. Seth is scary when he is waken up before six in the morning, everyone in the Neo Estraneo knew that...Sadly enough.

A lot of people has been traumatized by that incident… now I think about it, Seth is often the cause of the traumas of my Famiglia members.

"You are the Neo Estraneo primo and my son's future wife!" Iemitsu shouted, making me choke on air and resulting in a green gun pointed at his head and a trident aimed at his throat.

"What in the six hells are you saying, Sawada Iemitsu?" Mukuro asked in a very scary tone as I continued coughing.

"Dare to say that again, Dame-Iemitsu." Reborn asked in a similarly scary tone, but the thing that scared me the most was the thumping sound coming from upstairs that was coming closer every second.

"I-I meant that N-Nono has told me that she c-could be the future wife o-of Tsuna." Iemitsu corrected himself.

"Really? Then we will have a talk with this Nono."

"I agree, good morning Zero-sama."

"G-good morning uncle Seth, uncle Chris." I managed to say between my coughs. As I feared, Seth was not fully awake so he wasn't able to control his killing intend. The fact that he was holding some vials in his hands didn't assure me of the safety of Iemitsu either. _Sorry Tsuna, I think that your father is dead now…_ "Y-you heard that?"

""It was hard to miss."" My uncles stated simultaneously before turning their glares at Iemitsu.

"We will have to talk for a moment." Seth nodded at the paling man.

"Continue without us." Chris continued before my uncles grabbed Iemitsu by his clothes and dragging him away.

"…He is dead." I whispered when the green door closed behind the terrified blonde man.

"He is a dead man." Reborn agreed.

"And he won't be reincarnated." Mukuro nodded.

"…So, what is the Varia?" I asked. "Is that the group that Squalo is in?"

"That is right Zero. Why did you want to avoid him, by the way?" Reborn asked. "Now I think about it, I never told you Squalo's name. How do you know him?"

"Rather than knowing him… I've been kidnapped by the Varia before." I admitted sheepishly. "But I got away without problems kufufufu…?" Reborn gave me a blank stare before sighing in defeat and shaking his head.

"Only you, Zero. Only you are able to get kidnapped by an assassination squad and get away without problems."

"Oya? You tricked an assassination squad?" Mukuro asked, way too amused by this.

"…Apparently." I sweatdropped before deciding to change the subject. "And what are the ring battles? I've never heard about them before…"

"The name explains itself." Reborn began. "The guardians of the Varia will fight against Tsuna's guardians for the rings and the right for the title 'Vongola Decimo'. That includes _you_ Mukuro."

"Oya? I haven't accepted the role as mist guardian yet, arcobaleno." Mukuro glared at Reborn.

"Why don't you want to become Tsuna's mist guardian, Muku-chan?" I asked quickly to avoid another childish fight.

"Kufufu, isn't that obvious my dear Zero? Three words: Most. Bloody. Famiglia. Ever."

"Those are four words, you moron."

"Kufufu, but who is counting arcobaleno?"

"I am-"

"Alright then." I interrupted the males, if I didn't this would really continue forever. To my surprise, Reborn and Mukuro actually shut up and turned their attention to me. Why did their relationship remind me of the relationship between Chris and Verde? "…Muku-chan. The Vongola wasn't always the most bloody Famiglia in history you know? There was a time that it was still a vigilante group."

"What has that to do with me?" Mukuro asked while raising an eyebrow.

"Tsuna… I told you that he resembles the first boss of the Vongola, right? I believe that Tsuna is able to reform the Vongola back to what the Vongola was meant to be… a group that protects civilians instead of inflicting fear on them. But Tsuna can't do it alone, especially not now the Varia is here."

"He needs guardians." Reborn nodded.

"Indeed and you are the only one who is qualified." I flower-smiled, I could see Mukuro think about this matter already. He just needed a small push. "And wouldn't it be _convenient_ if you got rid of the Famiglia with the bloodiest history ever? To turn dark grey-"

"In a lighter shade of grey… you taught me too well, Zero." Mukuro sighed in defeat. "Alright, I accept."

…

_Leave it all to Zero when it comes to Mukuro_, Reborn nodded as Mukuro actually shut up and listened to Zero. Sometimes Reborn wondered if it was really illusions that was his sister's forte and especially in situations like this one. And yet, Reborn hoped that illusions were her forte because his baby sister having _mafia-seduction_, the unconscious kind or not, as a specialty is _not_ good for Reborn's heart.

Reborn saw the flowers and the potent sparkles behind that blinding smile doing their job to convince the still slightly tired teen and nodded again. It was definitely not good for his heart to see his sister using mafia-seduction on her student. Especially since it's Mukuro.

And yet it helped him a lot in this situation…

"And now about the matter of your tutor-" Reborn began after giving the Vongola mist ring to Mukuro.

"I don't need a tutor of your choice, arcobaleno." Mukuro interrupted Reborn as he absentmindedly put the ring on. The hitman glared at the teen since he was about to tell him that he _didn't need a tutor at all_. He was Zero's student for almost five years after all. And Zero was the best illusionist that he knew, though Reborn may or may not be_ a bit_ biased towards his little sister.

And now he was thinking about Zero…

"Will you become a tutor too, Zero?" Reborn asked the albino girl. It would be a waste to not let her teach a student, especially since Fuuta ranked her as the most knowledgeable person about flames in the mafia. And Reborn knew the perfect student for her.

"Hmm, sure." Zero smiled.

"Then, please tutor Hibari Kyoya." Reborn smirked.

"The skylark?" Mukuro glared at the hitman as Zero froze at the mention of the prefect.

"He is strong enough to defeat his opponent, but he lacks certain knowledge that you can give him." Reborn continued as he ignored Mukuro. "You are also the only one that he doesn't bite to death without listening to first." And he is most likely asexual and won't let Mukuro approach him and by extension Zero, but those are just a nice bonus points. _Really nice bonus points._

"Oya, who says that you can take _my_ tutor away?" Mukuro asked.

"You said that you didn't need a tutor-"

"From your choice, kufufu."

"Please, please shut up." Zero pleaded before Reborn could open his mouth again. "It's way too early in the morning for this."

""He began!"" Reborn and Mukuro stated at the same time as they pointed at each other and Zero sighed.

"I… I think that I can't teach Hibari-san a lot. He is a physical fighter and I'm not able to fight physically." Zero frowned. "Ala- Hibari-san is the kind of person who earns the most experience during fighting, not with knowledge. So it's better for his sake if you found someone who could fight evenly with Hibari-san. Preferably someone who is used to facing death and harsh training."

Reborn had to frown himself at the valid reasons that his little sister supplied, but accepting this fact would mean that Zero would teach Mukuro and he couldn't accept that. He does _not_ approve of that immature punk.

"And besides, I know what to train when it concerns Muku-chan." Zero smirked and Reborn knew that he lost this battle. He knew this look that could even convince their stubborn parents… It doesn't mean that he was admitting complete defeat though. Especially not after seeing the triumphant smirk on Mukuro's face.

…

"Alright." Reborn sighed in not-defeat before taking a pen and some paper from his fedora and writing something on it. "There is a gathering for the tutors at eight at this address, don't be late Zero. I have to give you something."

"Sure Reborn!" I smiled, relieved that I won't have to train Hibari of all people that I had to train. I still haven't completely recovered from my Alaude-trauma yet, though it isn't as bad as before now. I believe that my immunity for skylarks is slowly returning as I spend more time with Hibari... though that is a traumatizing thought itself.

I accepted the piece of paper with an address from Reborn but before I could read it, my uncles returned with a pale Iemitsu.

"We are done, Zero-sama." Seth smiled serenely, though his killing intend was still leaking from his body.

"Hmm… thank you for your hard work?" I sweatdropped. "You can go back to bed, uncle Seth."

"Sure, Zero-sama." Seth nodded before walking back to his room upstairs.

"Uncle Chris, could you please make sure that Sawada-san takes care of the mess that he made in the kitchen while I go back to bed?"

"That goes without saying." Chris nodded before dragging Iemitsu to the kitchen.

"I will be going first." Reborn announced as the door behind Iemitsu closed.

"I'll see you later." I waved before standing up and walking to my room to sleep for a little more. I didn't even bother with changing out of my casual clothes and climbed into my bed for well-earned sleep. It didn't take too long before Mukuro joined me in my bed again.

"Hey Zero?" He muttered.

"Yes Muku-chan?" I yawned.

"You're mine."

"Kufufufu. I know, I know. I'm your tutor, not Hibari-san's."

"That is not what I meant."

"What did you mean then, Muku-chan?"

"Never mind. Sleep well, my dearest Zero."

"You too, Mukuro…"

…

"Hmm, here?" I wondered out loud as I stood in front of the place where the gathering of the tutors was supposed to be held. A hospital that is supposed to be closed until next month according to the notice on the wall. I checked the address again, but this was the right address and if the piece of paper wasn't enough proof for this being the right location…

I could feel some of the incomplete presences of the Vongola rings here.

I shrugged and decided that this was indeed the right location before walking to the door… and evading two familiar figures that ran out of the hospital. "Goku-chan? Yama-kun?"

"No time to talk midget!"

"See you later, Zero-chan!"

"…See you later?" I frowned. What made them run away like tha- wait, I can feel a part of the Vongola rings on them…_ that explains a lot. _

"This is not a joke!" I heard Tsuna shout when I opened the door of the hospital.

"Hmm, what is not a joke?" I asked as I tilted my head in confusion. _What have I missed?_

"Hieee?! Zero?! Nothing!"

"Good morning to you too Tsuna, Dino-san. And if you're talking about the ring battles, I know about them already."

"Hieee?! Could it be that you're also a guardian?" Tsuna shrieked before he grabbed my hands and looked for a ring.

"Hmm… no. but I'm tutoring one of your guardians." I sweatdropped. Tsuna sighed in relieve before dropping my hands in shock.

"You what?! Who?"

"Hmm-"

"Zero was supposed to train Hibari, but now she is tutoring someone who is equally troublesome." Reborn answered for me as he took a familiar leather bound book out of nowhere. "Here you go, Zero. I had to deliver this to you after reading it."

"…"

"Zero?"

"Hmm… o yes. Thank you Reborn." I smiled when I snapped out of my initial shock. It wasn't possible that the book was still… _existing_… not after all these years.

I hesitantly accepted the familiar weight from Reborn and stared at the brown leather. The touch of the leather was still exactly the same as how I remembered… but how? I opened the book and resisted the urge to cry when I saw the illegibly blurred words on the inside of the cover, but I knew what was written there.

_The past is just the experience we can learn from._

_F._

F. Frederic Chevalier. _Grandfather_. _Impossible._

I quickly turned the page and almost dropped the book in disbelieve when I saw the first entry on the yellowed page.

_Dear grandfather,_

_Ever since this book fell into the lake with me, I was heartbroken that it became illegible. But the touch of the leather and the memories of the book were enough to remind myself of you, so I'm glad that I still have it. Even if I lost everything else now._

_Teacher carefully replaced the illegible insides of the book with new pages with the hint to write everything down like how you did… though they did it without my permission. They later claimed that they just forgot to mention it to me. Now I'm thinking about teacher. There will be a day where I will find out how they really look like and what their real name is. Until then, I will make sure to learn everything I need to know._

_Wish me luck, grandfather._

_A._

A. Alexis Chevalier._ It really _is_ my diary from four hundred years ago…_

I tried to blink my tears away before they fell and tried to understand how the leather bound book still existed. How it was still the same as the last time I saw it… and then I realized something that I'd rather not realize at all.

_My older brother read my diary._

…

**Omake: mafia-seduction**

_There are many mysteries surrounding my teacher_, Giotto decided once again when he was dragged along by the old man, who isn't an ordinary old man according to his instincts. When Sephira introduced him and his friends to this old man, with the message that he would teach them how to use the Vongola rings, more and more unsolved mysteries appeared.

What is his name?

Where does he disappear to so now and then?

How could he outrun Alaude who was shadowing him?

_What is he planning by dragging Giotto to the market and why is he pointing at a faintly familiar man?_

"This is an important lesson, Giotto. Listen well and observe that person." The teacher stated.

"What is this important lesson then?" Giotto sweatdropped.

"I didn't tell you?"

"No you didn't"

"Well… then, this is a lesson about mafia-seduction." The teacher said in a tone like he was talking about the weather.

"…Mafia-seduction?!"

"Hush, Giotto. The target is now suspecting something." The teacher hushed as he pulled Giotto behind a stand. Just in time to avoid the honey brown eyes of the young man that Giotto was meant to observe.

"Why do I need to know mafia-seduction anyways? I'm not even in the mafia." Giotto whispered as he observed the young man frowning in confusion and brushing some strands of his dark blonde hair out of his face.

"Mafia-seduction is a very useful skill that is just a little different from normal seduction." The teacher explained as the target shrugged and continued walking through the market. "Even if you aren't in the mafia. For all I know, our target isn't a part of the mafia either but…"

"Hmm, excuse me. Can I have five tomatoes, three onions and one kilo potatoes please?" The 'target' smiled at the vendor. The vendor, a woman around her twenties, blushed at the bright smile and nodded before putting the requested ingredients in the target's bag and giving him a huge discount.

"…Is that smile... sparkling?" Giotto asked, a bit taken back by the actions of the normally greedy vendor.

"That is all your imagination, Giotto." The teacher smirked proudly. "I told you that mafia-seduction is useful. And can you see how the vendor didn't even try to get close to the target? That is the difference between mafia-seduction and normal seduction. Mafia-seduction can manipulate those around you without them noticing that they are manipulated."

"Really? And the target is using it on innocent vendors?"

"Hehehe, here comes the best part, Giotto." The teacher laughed almost gleefully. "Our target isn't even aware that they are using mafia-seduction."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I can log in again! yay! Was I the only one who couldn't log in for a while? Anyways, I can update again so I'm happy. I don't know if this was mentioned before (probably not), but Reborn only knows about _one_ of Zero's past life's. The one as Renata, so he doesn't know about her being Alexis or any other identity that Zero had. Because... how do you tell your older brother that you are several hundred years older than him? And I'm glad that most/all of you guys managed to guess who Vi-chan really is :).**

**Like I said, ****Stellar Nymph, _everything_ is possible. And about the card games... rather than teaching Viper, Renata loved to play card games in general and I think that it would be inevitable to learn some skills in card games when you are constantly beaten by your friend.**

**True, ****ddmahan922, all true...**

**Of course Reborn knows, ****AnimeKpop7! It's just that he is still bitter about the fact that he can't find out Viper's true gender and he doesn't like to mention them because of it. But like every obvious disguise in Katekyo hitman Reborn, it is apparently impossible to tell that Mammon is the same person as Viper without their pacifier, so Reborn doesn't know that Viper is in the Varia.**

**That is kind of... possible, ****Sakura-hime99, but HibariXZero is still one of the pairings that is the least likely to happen.**

**All on it's time, Grizzmon. Wait and find out kufufufu.**

**I know, ****ADDBaby XD. ****And o god, the Varia. I imagine them being _forced_ to read the book by Lussaria, who simply couldn't decide on which pairing being the best. Xanxus would ship MukuroXZero while Squalo would , strangely enough, ship TsunaXZero. So now and then they would get into violent fights during dinner while the other Varia members just watch it happen. Levi would like support his boss, but secretly ships TsunaXZero, so he doesn't interfere with the fight. Belphegor would read passages of the book out loud to add more fuel to the fire and enjoy the show while Lussaria just smiles at the chaos he created. Mostly because that chaos is exactly what he is feeling. Somewhere in the middle of a fight, they start using examples in real-life and find out that there is a similar situation in real life. Meanwhile, Mammon goes to Zero and 'kidnaps' her to safe her from the mess that would surely come...**

**To ****Tsukiyomi-Hio, the older hooded person would be Vi-chan's parent. **

**Well, that would be all for now! Zero was... distracted in the last part of this chapter, so she completely missed Tsuna freaking out about Hibari and Ryohei's and Collonello's flashy entrances and exits. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 31: the duty of a tutor

I looked at the small form of my brother in horror when I realized that he read my diary. One from four hundred years ago, but still _my _diary.

"R-reborn did you r-read this?" I tried to ask nonchalantly, but I knew that it didn't sound as easygoing as I meant it to be. How could it? He read my diary, damn it!

"Yes." Reborn nodded as he changed out of his costume with the elephant hat... wait, since when was he wearing that- nevermind. This was more important. " It was an interesting read, but it was kind of frustrating how Primo or his cloud guardian didn't make a move on this 'A'."

I pushed that confusing comment and the questions I had about his clothes out of my mind for now and asked something that mattered right now. "How- No, _who _asked you to deliver this to me?"

"Talbot." Reborn answered casually before he put his fedora with Leon on it on his head. All my initial thoughts blanked out when I heard that unexpected answer.

..._Talbot?_

"...He is still alive?" I muttered in surprise. That would be impossible, the last time that I saw and talked to him was four hundred years ago! He _can't _be still alive. That is humanly impossible!

"For all I know, he has been alive since Primo's time." Reborn shrugged before pulling something out of seemingly nowhere and giving it to me. "He told me to give you this as well..."

"Thank you." I muttered, still in disbelieve, as I accepted the closed envelope. I frowned at the small seal that was used to close the envelope and put my hand over the familiar green symbol. Lightening flames. _Talbot's lightening flames._

Lightening flames to harden and literally _seal_ the envelope, so no one could open it without the right flame signature. A communication method that Tal and I used to keep contact with each other without the fear that someone else than us would read our messages. Certain policemen were too curious for their own good.

"It really is you, isn't it Talbot?" I muttered as I ignited a small amount of dying will flames. The indigo and white flames made the green seal react and light up in a dim green light before the envelope could be opened. I carefully pulled the... postcard out of the envelope and smiled fondly, but confused, as I read the contents.

_Dear Al._

_I knew that it was you ever since I heard rumors about ghosts, Al... though I should call you Zero now, I guess. Don't be angry at me for allowing Reborn to read your diary, but you would agree that he needed some inspiration to train the Vongola Decimo in dire situations like this one._

_I know, I know. This is _your _diary and it was not supposed to be read by anyone but you… but you agree that it was needed for you are a tutor yourself, right? If not I will take responsibility._

_Anyways, I told Reborn to read it._

_And since I thought that it would be nice if you had something to remember us with, I asked Reborn to deliver this to you after he was done reading it._

_Good luck with 'your duty as a tutor'. I would advise to take it easy and do what you usually do though._

_I'll be waiting for a visit,_

_Tal._

_Ps. Look at the other side_

I turned the postcard around and all of my doubts about Talbot disappeared. It couldn't be anyone else but him...

"But how is it possible?" I wondered out loud as I smiled fondly at the picture of the cliff, invaded by sheep. How could it be possible that Talbot was still alive?

_Though this could explain something._

After putting the postcard back in the envelope and resealing the envelope, I opened my diary and put my hand on the brown leather. After using some of my flames on the book, I confirmed the weird, but undeniable, fact...

_My diary is flame resistant._

"...Kufufufufufufu, it all makes sense now!" I burst out laughing after the initial surprise and disbelieve had dissipated.

"What does make sense now, Zero?" Reborn asked as he jumped on my shoulder.

"How this book survived all these years. It is flame resistant!"

"...This book is a weapon?" The hitman on my shoulder frowned.

"Kufufufu, no Reborn. Not only weapons can be made flame resistant. If you read this book you'll find out that they once made a pair of high heels flame resistant for Giotto."

"I read that... though I still don't understand why 'A' and Talbot did that..." Reborn frowned, he didn't like not understanding something.

"Hmm, you know that flame resistant weapons are forged and enhanced with dying will flames, right?" I asked Reborn, after he nodded in confirmation I continued my explanation. "Every kind of dying will flames has their own 'special effect' on the object that is made flame resistant. Mist flames, for example, can hide certain features or make it possible for the weapon to transform. I used that special effect to hide features on Hibari-san's tonfa's. Lightening flames have a whole different effect, they can harden and protect. They can make things become close to indestructible, even for time."

"So you are saying that A and Talbot made the _high heels_ indestructible and able to... _transform_?" Reborn deadpanned.

"Kufufufu, almost. They made them indestructible and able to change color." I chuckled at the memories. "...And Talbot made this book flame resistant to let it survive for four hundred years... for unknown reasons. But it helped to inspire you for Tsuna's training, so it's fine... _I guess._" I'm still going to confront him about this matter though.

_You better take responsibility, Tal._

"I admit that it was pretty inspiring." Reborn nodded before jumping of my shoulder.

"Kufufu, I admit that too." I agreed, though I'd rather disagree because it is still _my diary_ that Reborn read. I have to make sure that no one reads it from now on.

"...Why does it feel like I've missed something?" Tsuna sweatdropped as Reborn walked to him and Dino.

"I agree, little bro." Dino sweatdropped as well.

""Because you guys did."" Reborn and I replied before looking at each other and smiling in amusement. Dino and Tsuna just watched us in confusion for a while before deciding that they simply didn't want to know.

"One more thing, Zero." Reborn stated. "The Varia would most likely be here in Nanimori in ten days. Be sure to prepare him for the battles."

"Sure, Reborn." I nodded. Ten days meant less time than I hoped for, but still plenty of time. If everything goes as planned, Mukuro's training will be over in a week.

"Alright then. I will go and prepare for my student." Dino stated.

"Eh? Dino-san, y-you are tutoring someone as well?!" Tsuna asked the blonde boss.

"Yes, as an ally of the Vongola, I can't fight along. This is the only thing that I can do to help." Dino sighed.

"I am in the same situation." I agreed. "But even if I would be able to fight for you, Tsuna… Reborn won't allow that."

"Indeed." Reborn confirmed and I sighed again.

"…I never wanted you to fight for me anyways." I heard Tsuna mutter.

"Hmm, is it because I'm a girl, Tsuna?" I smirked, remembering a similar conversation that I had with the teen before.

"N-no it's not like that!" Tsuna denied. "It's just that you have your… own conditions and I don't want to involve you in mafia matters!"

"…You know that I'm a mafia-boss, right? And I have my own student to tutor."

"T-that was not what I meant either!"

Kufufufu, I get it..." I chuckled at the panicked exclamation. "I will go to school now, before Hibari-san decides to bite me to death." I announced before walking to the door.

"B-but what about the tutoring?" Tsuna asked me before I could leave.

"Kufufufu, who says that the tutoring hasn't begun already?"

...

_Flashback _

"So what is the training going to be?" Mukuro asked when I finished changing and allowed the teen in my room again.

"Just a small evaluation to see how much you have improved in the past years." I smirked. "If everything goes as planned, only one week is needed to finish your training."

"That sounds alright." Mukuro nodded.

"Kufufufu, we will begin immediately then."

"Oya? Why are you in your school uniform then?" Mukuro questioned.

"...Because my duty as a tutor begins now, Muku-chan." I smiled as I casted the illusion. "Good luck with your training."

...

Once again, I found myself looking at the door to the reception room with my bag that was still filled with an impossible amount of weapons… though this time my bag contained my old diary as well. I glanced at my bag that somehow could contain more stuff than I could ever imagine and decided that I didn't want to know what my Famiglia did with it. It would probably be something crazy.

"Here goes nothing..." I sighed before knocking on the door.

"Ah, it's you, Rabbit-kun." Hibari's right hand man smiled when he opened the door and saw me.

"You can call me Zero, you know that right, Kusakabe-san?" I sweatdropped at the use of the... _synonym_ that Hibari used for me. I outright refused to believe that it is a _nickname_. Skylarks and nicknames? No. Just no.

"It will only get more confusing if I did that." The teen with the Elvis-like hairstyle laughed in a slightly apologetic tone before stepping aside so I could enter the reception room.

"Hmm, alright then..." I sighed in defeat before gathering all of my courage to walk into the base of the disciplinary committee. Though even with all that courage, I had to resist the strong urge to run away from the reception room once I saw Hibari sitting on his black bench.

Kusakabe closed the door behind him as he wanted to give us some privacy… though I wished that he didn't. I kind of wanted some moral support… or emotional support. Or support in general. Yes, some support would have been nice.

"You are late for school, handicapped herbivore." Hibari stated even before looking up from the ring, the Vongola cloud ring, that he was observing. The raven haired teen looked up and demanded an explanation of why I was late and why I was here before he would bite me to death with his eyes only.

"I-I was late because of Reborn." I answered truthfully.

"Hn, the baby." Hibari nodded like that could be an answer to everything... and in a way it probably could be.

"And for why I'm here... I wanted to enroll someone to Nanimori middle." I stated before opening my bag and pulling some documents out of it.

"Go to the principal for that." Hibari stated as he raised an eyebrow, but he accepted the documents without questions.

"Estraneo-Dokuro Chrome. She doesn't have a school record." I explained. Mukuro and Chrome didn't take that with then in that trip to Chrome's old home. Not even the medical papers though that was fixed with the help of a certain perverted doctor and Seth. "That is why I came to you instead of going to the principal."

"Hn."

"I know that I owe you now." I smiled weakly, I still wasn't sure if owing Hibari was going to work out. I mean, owing a favor to Alaude almost ended up with the eradication of an entire crime syndicate! "...and there is one more thing."

"What is it this time, rabbit?"

"I want permission to not attend school for… a little while. Around ten days? Maybe more?"

"…" Hibari teared his eyes away from the documents and looked in my eyes. The intimidating stare made me want to run away, but I forced myself to stand still and look back into the steel grey eyes. The glint of surprise and suspicion barely visible in the steel grey color made me flinch and my initial courage was slowly crumbling into the usual fear that I felt towards Hibari as more and more time passed in silence. And when I finally couldn't stand the pressure anymore, I opened my mouth to say something at exactly the same time that Hibari opened his mouth to say something.

But before either one of us could say anything, we were interrupted by someone who barged in the room.

"You're Hibari Kyoya, right?" Dino asked as he walked in the room with Romario following him. Hibari glared at the blonde before deciding to ignore him and say what he was going to say first.

"That is not acceptable, rabbit." Hibari stated.

"Eh? You are here too, Zero?"

"Sir, you are not allowed to enter this room!" Kusakabe warned from the hallway where he was restrained by some men in suits.

"My grades can handle this." I protested, ignoring the noise around us. I knew by experience how stubborn skylarks were.

"Hn."

"I know that I missed a lot of lessons already…"

"A lot is an understatement, rabbit."

"At least let me explain!"

"Why am I being ignored?" Dino asked Romario in the background.

"Maybe you should just begin with the explanation, boss." The older man mused. "Maybe he would listen."

"Maybe I should…" Dino mused, making Hibari unconsciously more and more pissed off and by extension less patient towards me.

"This matter is over, handicapped herbivore." Hibari glared at me before turning his glare to Dino. "And you are?"

"I'm like Tsuna's big brother and an acquaintance of Reborn. I want to talk about the ring with the cloud symbol on it." Dino smirked, glad that someone, finally, decided to listen to him and completely oblivious to the deadly glare that he was receiving.

"He is here for the same reason as why I am here." I frowned. _This matter is _not_ over until I get permission to not attend school._

"And why is that?" Hibari asked me.

"To tutor someone. To prepare them for battle… Dino-san is here to tutor you."

"There is no need for a tutor and you will be attending school, rabbit." Hibari scowled. I flinched at the harshness of his voice and decided to do something that I hoped that I'd never do again. But in a situation like this one, I had to.

I sighed once more before looking in Hibari's eyes with newfound determination and carefully pronounced the dreaded and meaningful word.

"Hn."

"…" Hibari dropped his scowl and looked at me in slight, almost invisible, bewilderment before smirking in anticipation. "Wao. I accept then."

"That is great." I sighed in relieve. I hadn't used the skylark language in four hundred years and one small mistake in the pronouncing could cause huge destructions. I knew that by firsthand experience… sadly enough. "I'll take my leave then."

"…What did you do?" Dino asked me when I passed him on my way out of the room.

"Don't worry about it, Dino-san" I reassured the confused blonde. "I just made a deal with Hibari-san."

"Now I'm even more confused." Dino sweatdropped.

"Believe me, it's better to be confused." I sighed before leaving the reception room and waving Kusakabe goodbye.

_I hope that the permission to not attend school was worth the deal though…_

…

Iemitsu wondered what Reborn was thinking when he appointed that young girl as the tutor of Rokudo Mukuro. No. He wondered what Reborn was thinking when he didn't stop the girl becoming a tutor. Iemitsu saw the expression on Reborn's face when he announced that Estraneo Zero was Mukuro's tutor after all and he was sure that the hitman did not appoint Zero willingly…

Iemitsu had never been so terrified of the greatest hitman in the world before.

That unwillingness didn't change the fact that the albino girl was tutoring the mist guardian though… or at least, that was what she was supposed to do.

After checking up on Tsuna, the cloud guardian and the rain guardian, Iemitsu ran into the girl on the way to her home and she surely wasn't tutoring a not-criminal who didn't not try to take over his son's body.

"Hmm, Sawada-san are you checking how the training is going?" Zero asked the blonde.

"…Yes." Iemitsu nodded. He wondered why the girl was in her school uniform and casually walking around with a shopping bag filled with chocolate and cocoa and not tutoring the mist guardian like she was supposed to do.

"Kufufufu, follow me then. The training for today should be over in fifteen minutes or something like that." Zero chuckled as she gestured the blonde man to follow her to the house where she lived in. Iemitsu hesitantly followed the albino girl to the green building and wondered what a tutor could teach a student when she was not there to tutor the student.

After the albino girl closed the door to her room she made her way to a wooden desk that Iemitsu eyed with suspicion. He had his share of non-green objects in this house, thank you very much.

"I believe that you have some questions." Zero smiled calmly when she sat down behind her desk.

"Yes." Iemitsu nodded warily. He recognized the tone that the girl used, it was the same tone as his mother and Nono would use when they are facing difficult problems. The tone that could silence the biggest troublemakers and force them to admit everything they did. The patented parental-voice... though Iemitsu wondered how this young girl knew how to use this voice.

"It is about the training, isn't it?" Zero flower-smiled. "Don't worry about that. Today's training should be over in... five minutes-"

"Kufufu, I know that our training consisted of escaping illusions five years ago... But did that mean that you had to put me under an illusion for an entire week, my dear Zero?" Mukuro chuckled weakly from the bed in the room.

"Hmm, you improved more than I thought." Zero mused, amused by the confusion of the males in her room. "You are five minutes early."

"What?" Iemitsu frowned. What did that Rokudo kid mean with a week... what did the girl do?

"Let me explain." Zero smiled brightly. "Before I casted the illusion, I mentioned that the training will be done in a week. That is how your mind made it easier for me to change the concept of time in your mind, Muku-chan."

"...It hasn't been a week." Mukuro realized.

"Remember, Muku-chan. A fight between illusionists is affected by everything that happens before the battle actually begins. Everything you say and everything you do can be used in your favor or against you." The albino girl explained and Iemitsu knew that he underestimated the girl.

She was more than she looked like. Skilled, experienced and _dangerous_. Not everyone can mess with the concept of time for experienced illusionists...

This only leaves the question why Reborn didn't watch her to tutor the mist guardian...

But Iemitsu decided that he'd rather live another day.

...

**Omake: inspiration**

After locking the door to my personal room in the basement I took my diary out of my bag. The leather bound book that I never expected to ever see again and the 'innocent' book that surely unleashed Sinclair-style torture on Tsuna… the poor boy.

_But what actually inspired Reborn?_, I wondered as I opened the leather bound book. I had used many different kinds of methods to train Giotto and then I haven't counted the training that Giotto got before I became his tutor…

And then I noticed the sheet of paper that _I_ definitely didn't leave between the pages. I skipped to the pages where the note was used as a bookmark and paled when I read the entry on the left page.

_Dear grandfather,_

_It has been a week since teacher informed Tal and me about his new students, only to appoint us as their tutors and way too many stuff has been happening in the last week. If this is chaos is what happens every day in here, then I'm not surprised that Asari managed to miss his ship for too many times already._

_And I still have to actually begin tutoring the 'Vongola's'._

_At least teacher had begun with teaching the vigilante group how to ignite their flames, some were easier to teach than others, but teacher asked me to train them even more and to teach Giotto how to achieve hyper dying will mode… even though I was never able to do it myself. So I still have a lot to do._

_To achieve hyper dying will mode, Giotto has to face death and discover what his dying will really is. Of course, I would be able to use illusions to 'kill' him but I won't always be by his side to do that. So I had to find another way to do this._

_I had to find another way to let Giotto face death without killing him for real. And I did. Though Giotto might end up killing himself, so I will postpone this training for now. Instead, I will use my illusions to let Giotto get used to his hyper dying will mode and to train him._

_Because climbing up a mountain without prior training could be considered suicide, I guess._

_The mountain close to the Vongola mansion is perfect for this training. It is rocky and steep enough to create a feeling akin to 'deathsperation' and yet it is safe enough to fall and survive the fall because it isn't _that_ steep._

_Not that I'm going to tell Giotto that though._

_Once he knows that he can fall safely, this training would be useless. However, I don't want to end up killing someone who I now consider a friend._

_But first things first. I will begin with the basic training before I move on to the actual 'death mountain' training._

_Wish me luck, grandfather._

_A._

I went even paler when I read the notes on the sheet of paper that Reborn left between the pages. The notes on 'replacing illusions with dying will bullets' and 'real deadly mountain' made me realize that Reborn was going to use _this_ method on Tsuna… without prior training and without a 'safe' mountain.

"I'm so sorry for condemning you to this fate, Tsuna…"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**School has begun again and it is killing me already. Whose idea was it again to let school begin so early in the morning? I will try to update as much as I can, but with school and real life issues the updates will be less frequent... I will try to update weekly though, but no promises ;).**

**Read and find out, Reaper Senpai kufufufufu.**

**I can imagine Reborn's reaction on it already, ****Stellar Nymph, ****especially since he thought that it was frustrating hw Giotto and Alaude didn't make a move on his baby sister kufufufu. And Mammon... *laughs madly.**

**Thanks ****n1ghtdr34m3r :).**

**Rather than that, ADDBaby. What if Mukuro actually shipped TsunaXZero and Tsuna shipped MukuroXZero? I can already imagine the shock they will unleash at their friends and family. Imagine Gokudera trying to convince Tsuna of the TsunaXZero ship and Chrome trying to convince Mukuro of the MukuroXZero ship. Yamamoto can only watch the chaos and laugh awkwardly because he shipped both of them and Hibari... he just ignores the herbivores and rereads the story for the plot and not for the ships. Ryohei is only extremely proud of his little sister for writing that book, but he can't help but feel extremely conflicted about that open ending. And Reborn... he immediately realized that the main character was too much like Zero and tries everything to prevent Zero from reading that book. That is why Zero doesn't know anything about that book until an unexpected factor told her about that book... _Spanner_. The mechanic is an unexpectedly great fan of the book and even got an e-mail buddy because of the book. I actually imagined Xanxus being a MukuroXZero shipper because the character that is based on Mukuro is the badboy-type, as Hana described the teen, and Xanxus thinks that the character based on Tsuna is a wimp. (And how can't I play along with this? Nice pairing names, by the way)**

**I'm afraid that we will never find out how she will look like in the next life, ****Grizzmon.**

**To Tsukiyomi-Hio: yep.**

**Haha, thanks mysterious guest number 2. And the rubber duck was indeed a reference though it had a hidden meaning as well. Zero never had a rubber duck in her only real childhood and she is afraid of water because of her almost drowning. That is why Zero only took showers and never took baths and that is why she never had a chance of seeing a rubber duck 'in action'.**

**Thanks for the other reviews as well :D. Next chapter will have more training, Hibari and... you'll find out. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 32: collaboration training

"Hmm… this is bad." I frowned as the fight escalated once again. Chikusa's yoyo's only _just_ missed Mukuro and Ken's attack was, once again, blocked by Mukuro's trident.

"…Correct me if I'm wrong, Zero-sama. But weren't you the one who wanted them to fight?" Seth asked before passing the popcorn to Chris. The garden that we almost never used was now devoid of the weed and other plants that got free reign because none of us ever bothered with tending the garden. The fight between the members of the band of misfits made sure of that.

"Kufufufu, you aren't wrong, uncle Seth." I chuckled amused, though I was still worried about the fight.

"…Wait. You were the one that provoked those idiots?" M.M. asked, a bit too amused for someone who belonged to the same band of misfits as the guys who were now fighting.

"All for the sake of Muku-chan's training." I nodded. It was almost too easy to get Chikusa and Ken to fight Mukuro. Just a promise to never let my uncles cook again, in the last month they somehow decided that it was a good decision to cook even though they can't cook at all, was enough to convince the teens.

"Training?" M.M. asked instead and I gave the girl a slightly weak smile.

"An illusionist is normally seen physically weak because they normally train their minds instead of their body, that is why we take advantage of Muku-chan's fighting abilities and train them even more." I didn't have to say that this physical weakness was what would give _me _a disadvantage in fights, especially with my weaker bones. In my former life's I was better though.

"But why these idiots? They aren't _that_ strong…"

"I can see that they are holding back, but I can't blame them. They are fighting someone who saved them and who they grew up with. But that would turn today's training into stamina training..." I sighed and with Chikusa and Ken holding back against Mukuro, the training is progressing slower than I would have liked it. "...Why don't you join the fight too, M.M.-chan?"

"Hell no." M.M. flat out refused.

"Aren't you supposed to be at school?" Chris asked the red haired girl. The said girl just shrugged and took the popcorn from Chris' hands.

"I'm not missing those idiots being beaten up by Mukuro-chan." She stated before she returned her attention to the fight in the garden.

"That brat… at least Chrome goes to school willingly." Chris grumbled under his breath.

"Kufufufu, I'm proud of my daughter." I laughed softly when I heard that. Chris and Seth sighed exasperated at that and shook their head. In their opinion, it was absolutely crazy for me to adopt Chrome. But it worked out in the end.

"When talking about the devil…" M.M. muttered when the creaking sound of opening the backdoor could be heard.

"Welcome back, Chrome-chan, you're home early. How was school?" I asked the girl who just joined us in the garden. "…No wait. More importantly, how was your meeting with the disciplinary committee?"

"I got a tour through the school from one of the disciplinary committee members, it was actually pretty fun." Chrome smiled, though that smile turned into a small frown immediately afterwards. "Cloud-man appeared immediately after the tour though and ordered me to go home with a message."

"Hmm, a message?"

"Yes, he said: Hn." Chrome tried to imitate Hibari and I froze at what she said. There were many things that I could have expected from the prefect and I even accepted the fact that he was eerily like Alaude, but this takes the cake.

Did Hibari really say that he wanted to destroy all the cockroaches on mars?

Wait…

Chrome didn't exactly speak the skylark language… right?

"Did someone tell you what he meant?" I sweatdropped at the small misunderstanding I had.

"Actually… yes, Elvis translated it for me. Apparently it meant: now it is your turn.."

"Elvis?" I sweatdropped, because of the rather frequently used hairstyle of the committee members? Nevermind that. Did Hibari mean that it was my turn to do my part of the deal?

If he sent a, future, Nanimori middle student home, just to inform me about this…

"Muku-chan!" I shouted, startling the fighting teens and accidentally making them tripping over each other.

"…Yes?" Mukuro grunted under Ken, who fell on him.

"Give me your trident."

"Oya?"

"Believe me, it's for your own good." I sighed._ I have a deal to fulfil after all._

…

"Can I ask a few questions, Zero?" Mukuro asked while he and Zero walked through the streets of Nanimori.

"Sure." The girl in her school uniform, completed by her schoolbag that could contain a huge battle axe, nodded.

"Why are we going to the skylark's lair?"

"Because, Muku-chan, I have a deal to fulfil and because of your training…" Zero blinked innocently.

"…Don't tell me that-" Mukuro asked as he narrowed his eyes. He did not like where this conversation was going...

"Yep." Mukuro looked at the sparkling smile of his adorable tutor and shook his head in resignation. She was clearly used to handling difficult types to train... wait. Did that mean that he had to... and _without _his trident?!

"...I can see that you were related to that arcobaleno now." Mukuro sighed. He loved his former-teacher-now-tutor, no really, but her teaching methods varied from interesting to plain demanding and Mukuro couldn't help but blame the sun arcobaleno for that.

"Kufufufu, I will consider that as a compliment." Zero chuckled. "Now, let's go to the roof!"

"Why the roof?"

"Because the presence of the Vongola cloud ring is there!"_ The presence of wha-_

"...No, I don't want to know about it."

...

I remembered advising Reborn to appoint an experienced fighter as Hibari's tutor, but I wouldn't have expected Dino to be Hibari's tutor. And yet, the fact was undeniable as the blonde Chiavarone boss was fighting Hibari with... a whip?

Wait. If his nickname is 'bucking horse' and his weapon is a whip...

_No, I don't want to think about it._

"I'll bite you to death, herbivore." Hibari glared at the whip wielding man and somehow I couldn't help but think... no, stop here Zero. Bad thoughts, bad thoughts!

"I blame you." I muttered at Mukuro before trying to attract Hibari's attention by shouting his name. "Hibari-san!"

The said prefect tried to hit Dino one more time before turning his attention to me. It took one second for Hibari's expression to change from annoyed to bloodthirsty and it took two seconds for him to push on one of the many hidden buttons of his tonfa's. It took one more second for Hibari to bolt at the teen behind me with now spiked tonfa's that I especially enhanced. One more second passed while the tonfa was blocked by a real illusion of a trident and a total of five seconds passed before Hibari actually said his catchphrase.

"I will bite you to death, pineapple herbivore."

"Oya? Like last time, little skylark?" Mukuro taunted. "I believe that I won that fight."

"You're welcome Hibari-san, sorry Muku-chan." I muttered before walking to a panting Dino and greeting the man. "Good morning, Dino-san, Romario-san."

"Good morning, Zero. What are you doing here?" Dino asked me.

"Doing my duty as a tutor and fulfilling my part of the deal." I smiled before looking at the fight between the skylark and pineapple. "They are quite skilled for their age, aren't they?"

"Like you can talk." Dino sweatdropped as he let himself drop to the floor. "Why would Reborn allow you to be the tutor of the mist guardian otherwise?"

"I just have a lot of knowledge and experience." I shrugged.

"...Experience? Aren't you actually pretty young?" Dino frowned in confusion.

"Eleven years." I nodded. Though I actually should add a few centuries to that for my mental age...

"You're too young to have that kind of experience." Dino muttered in a sad tone. It wasn't too difficult what kind of experience he was mentioning if he was using that tone...

"Killing isn't the worst thing that I could do." I whispered. I could still remember the first time that I killed someone and I didn't think that I would ever forget that. It is a horrible feeling to know that you've ended someone's life, but like I said... I could do worse things.

"T-that..." Dino stuttered in surprise. He didn't expect me to know what he was talking about and when he realized that I did know what he was talking about, he shut up.

"I could easily traumatize someone with illusions." I continued, absorbed by bitter-sweet memories of my only real childhood. "When I was younger, I had terrible control over my illusions... whenever I could picture something in my head it would simply appear. So when my childhood friend tried to scare me with horror stories, I accidentally traumatized both him and myself with those illusions. Kufufufu, even now I hate creatures with more than six legs..."

"You're talking like your friend is..." I heard Dino mutter before he realized what he was saying, when he realized that he looked at me in horror. "N-no I didn't mean it like tha-"

"It is true though." I smiled sadly. "He is gone." For four hundred years even...

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know." I answered truthfully. After being reborn several times, I decided to try and find out what happened to my friends after I died and the results weren't pretty. I never expected betrayal from someone who was so loyal to the Vongola, but I knew by experience that history is pretty one-sided. History is written by the victor of the war after all.

But even up to today, I could not find out what caused the betrayal of Daemon Spade, my childhood friend.

Dino looked at in horror and panic as tears started to appear in my pale purple eyes. The man looked around to find something that could cheer me up, but he couldn't really find anything. Two glaring teens wasn't really something that could cheer people up and Romario didn't really help either. In a desperate attempt, Dino grabbed a turtle out of his jacket and pushed it in my hands.

"Do something Enzio." He ordered the sponge turtle in my hands. The turtle looked curiously at me before blinking once, twice, thrice...

"Kufufufu, he is adorable." I chuckled at the turtle and as if that was a cue, a very familiar yellow fluffbal landed on Enzio's back.

"Rabbit, rabbit~." The bird sang.

"Kufufufu, I remember you too, little bird." I smiled at the bird that accompanied Hibari ever since the 'Kokuyo incident'.

...

Dino didn't know a lot about the Neo Estraneo Primo, but he knew that Reborn would kill him, no he would outright murder him, if he found out that his tactless comments made the girl cry. So he was glad that Enzio and that bird managed to make the girl smile again.

"To answer the question you asked before, yes they are quite skilled." Dino smiled at the girl. Zero looked up from the turtle and the bird flew to it's owner before she gave the blonde man his pet back, a sparkling smile and nodded.

"That they are."

"So... any advice you want as a fellow tutor?"

"Hmm? Personally I think that you are the one that should ask me questions. I have the most knowledge of dying will flames in the mafia, according to Fuuta-kun, after all." Zero smirked.

"Ranking-Fuuta did?" Dino asked incredulously. "If ranking Fuuta said it, it must be true..."

If Dino would have paid more attention to the fight between Hibari and Mukuro, he would have noticed that the two were glaring at him ever since the tears appeared in the eyes of the albino girl. He would also have noticed that Hibari suddenly paid more attention when Zero mentioned dying will flames.

And above all, he would have seen Hibari coming.

The prefect suddenly hit the head of the blonde mafia boss and invaded Zero's personal space as he leaned forwards to give her one blunt demand.

"Tell me how to use those flames."

...

Two thoughts invaded my mind as Hibari with the yellow bird on his head came closer, too close, to ask the question and I couldn't decide which one was scarier.

One, Hibari was wearing exactly the same expression that Alaude wore when he announced that he would use my debt, or favor, to help him with destroying a crime syndicate.

Two, I was not scared of Hibari per se. I just felt discomfort because of the closeness and rather than that.. what was this heavy dark feeling that loomed over us? And what is that dark miasma coming from someone or something behind Hibari?

"...be pissed off." I stated as I took several steps back. "The trick for a typical cloud is to be pissed off."

Hibari nodded and walked to Mukuro as he ignited his flames around his tonfa's. Just like that. Without prior training or whatsoever.

"...Are those tonfa's flame resistant?" Dino asked hesitantly as he recovered from the hit and Hibari lashed out on Mukuro.

"...Yes... I forgot that I enhanced those." I responded... And then I remembered that Mukuro was technically seen without a real weapon right now...

_Damn it! _

I put my bag on the floor and opened as fast as I could. In a rush I managed to find the trident between the weapons and my diary that my bag contained and retrieved the weapon. "Catch, Muku-chan!" I shouted ad I tossed the trident to him. Mukuro somehow managed to catch the weapon, just in time to block an incoming attack from a cloud-flame shrouded tonfa.

"You enhanced those?" Mukuro hissed under he pressure of the hit.

"Don't worry, I enhanced your trident as well! And you have an advantage because you have mist flames and because your weapon is enhanced with mist flames. As long as Hibari doesn't have mist flames as well, you are the only one who can use my flame resistant weapons to their full potential." I reassured the teen.

But by now, I should have learned to never say something like this around Hibari because the skylark always managed to prove me otherwise... because as soon as I said that, indigo flames surrounded the tonfa's with the purple flames that were already there.

"This is going to be a long fight..." I facepalmed. "But at least training is going smoothly now..."

...

After today's training I could tell that Mukuro was exhausted for using too many dying will flames. Hibari as well, though the prefect did not show it like my own student, Mukuro was just easier to read for me because I taught him myself. The fight ended up in a draw, but only because I started throwing some illusions at them to tire them out halfway their fight. If I wouldn't have done that, the fight would have lasted way longer.

I was glad that neither of the teens noticed that _I _was the one who created those illusions though, Muku-chan and Hibari would never forgive me for interrupting _their _fight.

But maybe I put a bit too many illusions that caused mental strain in their minds because they suddenly collapsed. Both of them. At the same time.

"Rabbit, rabbit. Bite them to death~" Hibari's yellow bird sang as it landed on my shoulder.

"Never tell them that I interfered with the fight." I ordered Dino and the bird.

"Understood~" The bird sang before flying over to hibari again. "Midori tanabiku~"

"U-understood." A pale Dino nodded before he used his phone to call up some people to help the teens back to their house, which apparently meant that the entire Chiavarone Famiglia invaded the roof to get two teens to their home. Maybe I was imagining it, but I thought that I could hear Dino mutter about something being 'almost as dangerous as Reborn'... Something as dangerous as Reborn? That is a scary thought...

Anyways, that was how we reached the house 'peacefully' right after the sun started to set. Mukuro was already sleeping, in my bed as usual, while I decided to catch up with paperwork... until I found out something that made me positively horrified.

My bag wasn't with me.

Which meant that I left it at the roof of Nanimori middle.

_With my diary still in it..._

"And just when I promised myself to make sure that no one would be able to read it." I scowled as I quickly made my way downstairs. I was lucky that both Chris and Seth weren't there and that the other residents were already in their own rooms as I walked to the door. No one was there to stop me from going out so late in the night and they wouldn't find out as long as they didn't decide to poke the illusion I left of myself in my room.

I ran as fast as I could to the school to retrieve my bag while wondering why the streets were so eerily quiet. I admitted that it was pretty late, but at his time there are usually a few people who walked home from work or something like that...

But I decided to forget about that until I got my bag.

I safely reached the school and managed to get to the roof with help of illusionary ladders and retrieved my bag without problems. To my relief, my diary was still in the bag too. Now I had secured the leather bound book and my bag, I could walk back home in relief.

I was halfway home when under the presences of some of the Vongola rings in the vicinity and in my curiosity I decided to see what was going on.

Curiosity killed the cat.

"Look who I found! It's Hibari-chan!" Lussaria shouted from the roof where the Varia was standing. I could feel the surprised eyes on me as the man said that and I winched at the volume of the surprised exclamations when everyone saw me.

Curiosity really killed the cat and satisfaction did _not _bring it back...

...

**Omake: planning**

"Why are we even here?" Shamal asked the two men who practically seen _dragged _him with them to a café in Kokuyo. The mafia doctor didn't even know why he allowed the two men to drag him along for they aren't women, but one look from his best friend shut him up.

He knew that whenever Joseph looked like this, he was in a murderous mood.

"Zero/ Zero-sama." The uncle's of the said girl answered like that would answer anything.

"She recommended this place with the smile you simply do not deny." Joseph, kindly nicknamed uncle Seth by a certain albino girl, muttered.

"The smile was already destructive with the sparkles alone, but with the flowers? It became potent." Christiano, better known as Chris, added. The grey haired man looked at the brunet before they sighed simultaneously. There was no way to say no to that smile without feeling guilty.

"Alright then..." Shamal sweatdropped at the scene. "So, why did you _guys _drag me with you? Something tells me that it isn't about women or advise on flirting with them."

"It's those brats." Joseph growled as he stabbed his fork in his cheesecake and Shamal knew that his best friend was very, very close to exploding now... if the man didn't let go of some steam of course. It seemed that Christiano noticed that too as the man calmly pushed Joseph back in his seat.

"Calm down Joseph." The green eyed man frowned. "Breath in... and out..."

"Right." Shamal sweatdropped again when he saw Joseph calm down a little bit. "Anyways, you need to let go of some steam, both of you guys."

"And how do we do that?" Chris asked as he raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Now we take an example of the fairer sex." Shamal grinned as he pointed his fork to the grey haired man. "Take Bianchi, for example."

"The woman whose poison Zero likes to eat?" Joseph asked.

"Indeed, she is the master of letting go of some steam." Shamal nodded.

"Let me guess... by poisoning people?" Chris questioned.

"Indeed. If your cooking is like it was in our high school days, Joseph, then you should be fine. I heard that your cooking is equally bad, Chris." The perverted doctor said before putting a forkful of cake in his mouth.

"And then accidentally poison the girls as well?" Chris glared, it was almost sad how he didn't attempt to deny the fact that his cooking was horrible.

"You simply lead them out of the house for one day, I volunteer-"

""No way."" Both uncle's deadpanned.

"Aw, I can take good care of girls, you know?"

"I hope that you get mentally scarred by Zero." Chris scowled. "And no."

"How cruel, at times like this I winder if you aren't a long lost relative of Hayato or something like that." Shamal sighed.

"Anyways, we can't cook until the girls are out of the house." Joseph sighed.

"You're actually considering that?" Shamal asked as he resisted the urge time gape at his best friend. He meant it as a _joke, _he didn't actually want a repeat of what happened that one time that the brunet cooked a meal.

""Why not?"" The uncles asked as they raised an eyebrow like they were saying 'you were the one who proposed this idea, right?'.

"You..." Shamal sighed. He will never propose this kind of thing ever again, these men were actually serious about poisoning those brats. Just what did they do to annoy them so much?

"We need a plan to get Zero and the girls out of the house." Chris nodded at Joseph. The uncles nodded before closing their eyes, crossing their arms and trying to create a plan.

"Excuse me?" A black haired waiter interrupted their thoughts. Shamal looked at the young waiter, Hiro as the nameplate suggested that he was called, who was surely suicidal by speaking to two men which definitely didn't want to be interrupted.

Seriously, how blind can someone be? But the waiter simply smiled at the semi-glares he received and approached their table.

"I couldn't help but overhear what you were saying and I believe that I have the solution. This café has a special event soon, but we lack maids. I believe that Zero-chan would like to work here for one night along with some other girls." Hiro smiled.

The two uncles looked at the young man before looking at each other and nodding.

"You got yourself a deal, Hiro-san."

That was how a few teens got traumatized by food cooked by two horrible, terrible cooks and how the small café in Kokuyo got even more famous in one night.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I simply had to end the chapter there, I simply had to. This chapter was actually a bit longer, but I decided that this was the perfect moment to end. Does anyone remember that Zero introduced herself as Nemo Hibari to the Varia? That is why she was called Hibari-chan by Lussaria. (The -chan part because it is Japan.)**

**Mammon will appear soon, ahem next chapter ahem, ddmahan922. The realization that they are Viper and Renata though... maybe a bit later.**

**Maybe we will, Grizzmon.**

**A lot of Vongola heirs hate mountains for an unknown reason, ADDBaby. Tsuna will just keep 'tradition'. And yep, it's actually a miracle that Spanner is still alive in the future kufufu...**

**And the training wasn't exactly over, Reaper Senpai. The evaluation was, but yes, this is where Reborn got his training method from (in combination with the Sinclair Spartan training method of course.)**

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 33: unwanted encounters

Tsuna was at the point of his life where all of his complaints simply turned into one question: why me? All the things that happened to him, from the unfortunate inheritance of a mafia family and Reborn to the Kokuyo incident to this.

_Why is it always me?_ Tsuna asked himself as his own father finished reading the letter that said that he did_ not_ have to inherit the Vongola at all. And yet, even though his father could simply give the Vongola rings to Xanxus, he simply had to announce that the ring battles will begin.

Tsuna looked at the strange group that looked down at him and his friends, or guardians as a small traitorous part of his mind supplied. The leader, Xanxus, was terrifying which was kind of fitting for the group that he lead. They were all terrifying in a way.

The man who tried to kill Lambo not long ago glared at everyone but his boss and there was a colorful man with sunglasses who looked him and his guardi- friends like he was comparing meat in a convenience store. A teen with a tiara and a Cheshire grin just kept on grinning like it was Christmas and there was a weird big man who somehow reminded Tsuna of the destructive robot that Zero once mentioned.

_The one that was capable of mass destruction._

Of course there was Squalo as well, the swordsman that defeated Yamamoto and Gokudera like they weren't even there, but the most terrifying one of the small group had to be the last member.

_The baby._

Call it paranoia or intuition, Tsuna simply had the feeling that this baby wasn't an ordinary baby. Or maybe Tsuna just had his share of unusual babies because of Reborn and Collonello…

Very destructive and dangerous. Very, very dangerous…

Wait… were the ring battles going to be held in Nanimori? In the town that was under control of Hibari? The bloodthirsty prefect?! Tsuna still remembered how scary Hibari looked like when he fought Mukuro because the teen threatened the peace of Nanimo- no wait. It was Zero's illusion that fought him... But it was still a very realistic scene of what could happen if the prefect would run into his beloved town being destructed by a group of-

"Look at who I've found!" The colorful man shouted, startling Tsuna out of his thoughts. "It's Hibari-chan!"

…

..._Why me?_

…And Hibari-_chan_?

After blanking out for some time that felt like ages but lasted only seconds in reality, Tsuna looked in the direction that the colorful man pointed in…

"Hieee?! Zero?!" Tsuna shouted while similar exclamations drowned his voice, he could vaguely hear a 'Nemo' and 'fish' and 'midget' as well though Tsuna had no idea what finding Nemo had to do with this situation.

"…Good evening?" Zero smiled hesitantly before cautiously taking several steps back. "I… did not expect to encounter you guys so late in the night…?"

"VOI! Come back, you stupid fish!" Squalo shouted. The man took advantage of the small second that the albino girl froze and rushed to where the girl was, with the sword still in his hand.

"Watch out!" Tsuna shouted, but his worries were unneeded. Zero moved away from the white haired man with ease... actually, it was like she wasn't even aware that she evaded the man as her expression showed pure surprise when the man rushed past her. And again. And again.

"Stop. Evading. Fucking. Fish." Squalo shouted as he kept on trying capturing Zero.

"Hmm... no thank you." Zero stated as she twirled around to avoid being accidentally stabbed by a sword. This was actually the first time that Tsuna ever saw the albino girl fight... or evade, apart from that one time she attacked Mukuro with an axe...

For some reason Tsuna didn't mind recalling that memory of Mukuro getting almost maimed.

And yet, the brunet couldn't help but thinking that it was _wrong _to see his friend dancing her way out of the attacks. He was feeling exactly the same feeling whenever he even_ tried _to think of Zero fighting anyone, be it for him or herself. Tsuna didn't like seeing his friend struggling in battle, he didn't like the thought of the girl being hurt, he honestly didn't want to see any wound on Zero not matter how fast her wounds could heal.

It just didn't feel right.

And yet, Tsuna couldn't help her right now. He wanted to, he honestly did... but he knew that he couldn't help her. He was still too weak to help the girl. He was still too slow to safe her. He would only get in the way if he jumped in now.

But that didn't change the fact that he wanted to jump in. That he wanted to help Zero. That he wanted to safe her.

Tsuna wanted to get stronger.

...

Damn it, damn it, _damn it_. How long has it been since I- _watch out where you point that sword_\- had to move around like this? It has been a _lifetime_ since I actually fought, but I was lucky that my body remembered how to evade by instinct because I would have been stabbed several times if my body didn't remember.

Sure, my wounds heal freakishly fast but I didn't really want to find out whether my body could heal fatal wounds or not.

So evading it was. As I continued sidestepping and bending away from Squalo's and his sword's reach, I wondered when my stamina would run out. Despite some training that was basically drilled in my mind, how could it be otherwise when I had been the daughter of the best hitwoman in the world, I was still a mafia boss with responsibilities… paperwork.

Paperwork that made me sit and write more often than not.

And I am an _illusionist_, we illusionists didn't have to be physically fit though it _is_ advantageous. Especially right now, since I couldn't find an opening to use my illusions to disappear. If I did attempt to disappear right now, Squalo would see it and most likely intervene the action.

"Stop. Evading. Fucking. Fish." Squalo shouted. I winched slightly at the volume, once again I was glad that my body could heal freakishly fast because I would have been deaf without that, and twirled around to evade being captured by the assassin.

"Hmm... no thank you." I stated before my survival instincts made me freeze and move my head slightly to the left, just in time to evade the wave of knives. I didn't even notice that I was hit by one of the weird-shaped knives before the thin trail of blood ran down my cheek. I frowned in frustration as I wiped the blood away with my hand and touched the small, but deep wound. My attention-span was already worsening which meant that I wouldn't be able to go on like this for much longer.

"You evaded it." Bel grinned with glee from where he was standing, when did he come so close, as more knives appeared in his hand. "This is going to be _fun_, little fish."

"VOI you almost hit me as well, shitty brat!" Squalo shouted at the teen with the tiara as both of them approached me. There was no path that I could take to escape and now I was cornered, becoming invisible without getting caught is impossible.

I looked around for a bit longer as I considered my options, none actually, but I didn't have to. Both Squalo and Belphegor stopped in their tracks and stared at me with wide eyes. Did I have something on my face-

Wait, I did. The two assassins looked at the small wound on my right cheek in strange fascination and slight shock as it mended itself in the usual speed that my wounds healed. Too fast. Way too fast.

"You… are an Estraneo experiment." Squalo said and I didn't know what was more surprising. The fact that the man used a normal volume to voice his thoughts or the fact that he knew about the Estraneo experiments. The files concerning them were destroyed or in our hands after all…

"Wha-?" I began, but I shut up when I heard a voice echo in the back of my head. 'When you are kidnapped for information or in a tight spot because of that…' "I've been hit by a piece of cheese and forgot everything..."

I did not mean to say that out loud…

The silence after I said that was almost deafening and I struggled to hold down a blush. Serena Sinclair taught me this line too well.

"You can't push her any more than this!" Lussaria shouted as he suddenly picked me up and hugged me… where did he come from anyways? If this 'suddenly appears out of nowhere' thing is normal for the Varia, then it wasn't a miracle that it was so hard to run away from them before! "The poor girl has amnesia!"

..._This poor excuse actually worked? _

"VOI! Hugging the fish like that can't be good for her either!"

"Ushishishi, but we have caught her now, haven't we?" Bel laughed, earning a thoughtful look from Squalo.

"...That is right. And even with the amnesia, this brat managed to evade our attacks." Squalo looked at me for a little longer, his eyes stopping at my now healed cheek, before grinning and nodding. "We'll take her with us."

I could only blink and try not to suffocate in the almost bone crushing hug at that. Why would they want to take me with them? It wasn't like I could be a hostage, or at least for all they knew. They only knew my alias, a poor one but still not my real name. It would make more sense if they knew that I was the Neo Estraneo Primo and wanted to kidnap me because of that. I couldn't be very useful to them in any other way...

Wait...

O, right. I was the eleven years old illusionist that managed to run away from an assassination squad that was part of the Vongola, which meant that they were the best. And I managed to escape without visible injuries.

_Did I wound their pride?_

I looked at the triumphant faces of the three assassins that got me surrounded and captured and abandoned that thought. They were too happy to be wounded like that, but for what reason would they be so happy to capture an illusionist?

"Let her go." Reborn ordered Lussaria, who simply hugged me even tighter in response.

"No, do you know how difficult it is to find skilled illusionists like her? And she's so young even though she has this much skill, we can't leave her! Hibari-chan is Varia quality!" The man whined.

And then it hit me. Assassination squad. Escape without pernament injuries despite them chasing you through Milan. Skilled illusionist. _Varia quality._ It all made sense if I connected the dots.

They wanted to _recruit_ me.

Damn it. What have I done wrong in my previous lives to deserve this much trouble? I had more unusual events in this life than half of my life's combined! I was an experiment, I met people who looked way to much like dead friends, my student committed suicide...

_Yes, I'm still not entirely over that. _

And now I was being kidnapped by an assassination squad that possibly wanted to recruit me... even my life as a Sinclair wasn't this messed up! My first life could be considered equally crazy though, thinking about it... but in a whole different way.

"Let her go." Reborn ordered again, though this time he had a green gun pointed at Lussaria.

"No!" Lussaria complained.

"_Now_."

"B-but"

"Hmm, it is better if you let me go, Lussaria-san." I muttered weakly. When brother was like that he couldn't be stopped and even I understood that one opponent less could mean disqualification for Tsuna if Reborn was the one who killed the said opponent.

The grip of the colorful man slipped and I took the opportunity to wriggled my way out of the strong arms. When I managed to slip out of the hug I immediately took advantage of the distraction that Reborn provided, turned invisible and _ran. _Brother should be able to handle this mess without me.

...

"You're strangely fidgety, my dearest. What happened?" Mukuro asked me as I continued looking around for any sign that would indicate the presence of any Varia member. I've been nervous ever since I ran away from the situation yesterday night. Reborn only texted me to come to the roof of Nanimori middle at midnight and didn't inform me of the situation which made me more paranoid than I should be.

"It's just that... I'm probably just a bit paranoid." I admitted sheepishly. It was kind of a stupid idea to continued training outside while the Varia was still here, but as long as no one would look at us too attentively they wouldn't be able to see through the illusion that Mukuro put up.

Though I did wonder why he chose to portray us as a couple that was picnicking. I had to admit that it was realistic, I wouldn't have paid much attention to your everyday couple on a picnic in the park... But meant that we had to act 'couply-like' as well.

"Kufufufu, relax. No one should be able to see through this illusion... So what is today's training?" Mukuro asked. "Not that I mind staying like this for a bit longer of course."

I shook my head in amusement at that and smiled at my student whose head was resting on my lap. His definition of acting all 'couply'.

"Hmm, nice try but I was thinking of teaching you a skill that managed to safe me several times in the past." I nodded. "Did you know that every illusion has traces of the mist flames of the caster?"

"Oya? That was one of the first lessons you taught me." Mukuro smirked. "Just like how you taught me to detect the flame signatures.

"Kufufufu, that is right. You're even better at that than me, I can only recognized flame signatures when I have direct contact with it." I chuckled. "I'm going to teach you how to disguise your flame signature."

"...That is possible?" Mukuro asked. I chuckled at the surprised expression and nodded in confirmation.

"It is." I smirked. "Remember how you possessed my illusions in Kokuyo Land instead of your friends? Normally you could have noticed my flame signature in that illusion, but I disguised it to make it undetectable."

"...that would make sense." Mukuro admitted. "I was already wondering how you did it..."

"Kufufufu, being able to disguise your flame signature is useful for many things. From hiding illusions to being able to disguise your illusions as the illusions of your opponent." I explained slyly.

"I see where this is going." Mukuro smirked. "That way your opponent will lose control of their own illusions and become vulnerable... now, what are we waiting for? Let's start."

...

Me having experience in training illusionists was a huge advantage for Mukuro since I knew when to stop the training. The difference between mist flame users and the other flame users, is the fact that our minds get strained during our trainings because we had to make an exactly picture of what we want to do in our minds.

A lot of illusionists could not act to their full potential because they train too much and strain their minds too much.

I signed another document before looking at my student who was sleeping in my bed again. Somehow this teen continued to surprise me with his skills and potential. I knew that Muku-chan had talent when I decided to teach him, bit I never expected how he was able to handle everything I taught him as fast as he did.

In fact, the training I planned was almost over.

"Hmm, it seems that he only needs practise." I nodded before beginning on another document of the paperwork pile. "I wonder if me fighting against Mukuro could be counted as practise..."

After signing three more documents I looked at the clock and decided to go to Nanimori middle even though I still had thirty minutes. But when brother tells someone to come, it's better to be early than late. To be sure that I had something to do while waiting, I put some of my paperwork in my bag along with some extra weapons.

If the Varia was going to try to kidnap me again, I will be prepared.

Like predicted, I was early but I was not the only one. Two dark skinned women with pink hair prevented me from going inside the school.

"You can not pass this point unless you have a connection to the Vongola." One of the two stated.

"I have a connection to the Vongola..." I muttered, but I was sure that they wanted some proof of that as well, but what could I show them? I only have my bag and it's contents... I didn't want to show them my diary that was still in my bag, bit that could be considered proof, right? I meant, the writer, which was me, was the tutor of the first generation!

Reluctantly I opened my bag to find my diary, but I found something better to show instead.

Paperwork.

Signed paperwork.

I never expected to see the day that I would be happy with paperwork.

"Here." I smiled triumphantly as I showed the piece of paper. "I am part of the Neo Estraneo that is allied to the Vongola."

"...You may pass." The other woman nodded before letting me through. I stored the document in my bag before walking though the school gates and walking to the roof. I expected to be the first one to arrive, but apparently I wasn't.

"Hibari-chan!" Lussaria squealed when I opened the door to the roof. I slammed the door closed before he was able to capture me again and calmly opened my bag to find a stun gun for protection. The only weapon that my Famiglia send me that I trusted because it managed to knock Shamal out without other..._ creative_ side effects.

Only when I had the stun gun firmly in my hands I opened the door again... only to almost drop the stun gun in surprise and disbelieve.

_Why is a gola mosca here?_

...

**Omake: dreams of the future**

"What is this byon?" Ken asked me as he and Chikusa walked in my room. I sighed at the two who never learned how to knock on doors and looked at the piece of paper in Ken's hand.

"Hmm, that is nostalgic…" I smiled.

"What is it?" Chikusa asked.

"That is my essay about 'my dreams' that I wrote when I was five." I smiled. I remembered writing this because I was bored, I didn't know that I brought it to Japan though…

"…When you were five." Ken deadpanned before shoving the sheet of paper in Chikusa's hand. "You call this something you wrote when you were five?"

"…In the future, I would like to be a history teacher. To teach people their past that shouldn't be forgotten is something that would be fun to do." Chikusa read out loud. "What is wrong about this?"

"Keep on reading byon."

"…If that is impossible, I want to become someone that will be able to take care of my family and friends for they are the most important people in my life… if they only would cause less paperwork…" Chikusa read. "I can't see what is wrong or off about this, apart from the handwriting that is very neat for a five years old…"

"She wrote this when she was five byon."

"Hmm, what is wrong with that?" I sweatdropped.

"Paperwork. You wrote _paperwork_. Are you trying to say that you've been a mafia boss since you were five?" Ken asked incredulously.

"…Yes?"

"That… is weird." Chikusa admitted.

"…And if you really were." Ken muttered before looking at his bespectacled friend. "Read the other side byon."

"…If the paperwork will increase any more than this, I will consider taking over the world instead to get rid of the paperwork… Are you serious?"

"I can explain it." I tried.

"You were already a mafia boss back then, right?" Chikusa asked, ignoring what I said. "The boss of the famous inventors-Famiglia even..."

"I was bored when I wrote this!" I tried again, but I was once again ignored.

"It has begun byon." Ken finished. "And none of us never noticed that we lived with the shadow ruler of the world."

"It was a joke!"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**The first battle will begin next chapter, though I think that Zero would be too distracted to notice much of it... Oh well, it can't really be helped. When I finished writing this chapter I realized three things: one, no one told the Varia that Zero was the Neo Estraneo. Two, the Varia have still no idea that Zero isn't a Hibari. And three, Zero has never seen Xanxus, not even in this chapter... **

**I do think that she would get along with byakuran, ****ddmahan922. Though only when the guy does not create more trouble... And I can totally see Zero becoming unstoppable as a woman, we'll see what the future will bring ;).**

**Kufufufu, we'll see Alice aquabld.**

**Luckily enough she has fast healing, ADDBaby ( All according to keikaku of course) and about the tradition thing -this comment has been deleted because of spoilers- :D.**

**It's alright, Midnight0Sky. The book is most likely the diary of Alex/Alexis Chevalier/Zero. Zero carries it around to prevent anyone from reading it nowadays.**

**Next chapter to be exact, Reaper Senpai.**

**That would be what she would have wanted, Grizzmon... however, she couldn't find an opening to escape.**

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 34: the thoughts that bothered me

I was in trouble, that was something that I knew for sure. Why wouldn't I be in trouble when I was restrained, or hugged, by Lussaria and guarded by Squalo who was standing right next to me? Even Levi was watching me though he looked less pleased by my capture. The only ones I didn't see right now were Mammon and Bel… But my mind was too occupied to think about those two right now.

There was another matter that was more important to me, like the gola mosca.

I did not remember signing _anything_ that proved that the Varia bought this machine and I was sure that Spanner told me that these robots were still in their experimental phase…

Which meant that they weren't supposed to be sold.

Which meant that it didn't come from us.

Which meant that the Varia had the necessary blueprints to build it themselves.

It all made sense now. Why I met some of the Varia members in the trap we set up in Milan and how the thieves got away with the blueprints unscathed from our base. This assassination squad were the thieves we were looking for. They were the ones that stole the older blueprints that Spanner managed to secure.

_They were the ones that caused fifty percent of my paperwork lately._

I was still glaring at the robot with a Vongola ring around its neck, _this thing is a guardian?!_, and thinking of a way to destroy it without getting Tsuna disqualified for the ring battles when a weird laugh caught my attention.

"Ushishishi, it seems that we have successfully captured the fish." Bel laughed. I gave the damned sure-to-be-destroyed-soon-robot one last glare before turning my attention to the blonde teen and the baby on his… shoulder.

The hooded baby did not wear a pacifier like Renato, but a part of the Vongola ring around their neck instead. But even without the pacifier, it was obvious that this baby was not a normal baby.

"Damn it." I breathed. An arcobaleno.

…

"So… why am I in this situation again?" I muttered mostly to myself after fifteen minutes. If only my stun gun wasn't confiscated by these men and my bag wasn't out of my reach because of Lussaria who was still hugging me, I wouldn't have been in this situation. Hell, they only managed to confiscate it because I was distracted by the gola mosca! I shouldn't have been in this situation to begin with!

_First the gola mosca and now an arcobaleno in the enemy team, what is next? Another lookalike?!_

...Now I was thinking about it, that was very possible considering the flames of wrath that I encountered in Milan...

Damn.

Something to defend myself with would be very appreciated right now, but because my bag was out of my reach I could only use illusionary weapons… and what then? Jumping down from the roof equals suicide and I wasn't sure if I would be able to escape the school if I ran. There was only one way out of the school grounds, damn it!

"Be honored." Levi answered the rhetorical question almost bitterly. "You can join the Varia, the best assassination squad of the world with the best boss of the unive-"

"The worst shitty boss in the world!" Squalo interrupted.

"The… worst boss in the world?" I muttered to myself again. Who talks about their boss like that? And if he really was _that_ horrible, why would anyone follow a 'shitty boss' like that?

"The worst_ shitty_ one." Squalo corrected me. "But the strongest of all and the only shitty boss I will follow in my life."

"Hmm, interesting." I sighed. This man loved to contradict himself, or rather he liked to insult people doesn't he? I looked at the night sky and sighed again. This group managed to get in and out of the Neo Estraneo base without being caught while they are this loud and disagreeing with each other…

We really should upgrade our security system.

…

"Is this the wrong place?" I heard Tsuna ask in the distance after watching the Varia being loud for another fifteen minutes. In this fifteen minutes I confirmed the fact that the Varia was the loudest and most violent band of misfits that I've ever met in all my lifetimes. Even the explosions in the Neo Estraneo were less loud or destructive than this group, though I could simply be used to that noise.

I looked away from the Varia that stopped bickering for now and looked at the small group that approached a cube shaped arena on the ground floor. I had the perfect view of the arena, that probably was the first battlefield, from the roof… which is probably the reason why Reborn texted me to come here.

It would have been the perfect observing spot if the Varia wasn't here as well.

The said assassination squad, minus the gola mosca, looked at the small group of friends that just arrived before nodding at each other. Then they looked at me and smirked ominously. I didn't like the foreboding feeling I got. Not at all.

"VOI I hope that you like heights, fish." Squalo stated loudly.

"…Why?" I asked hesitantly, but I got no verbal answer. Instead, Squalo took me from Lussaria's hold with his swordless arm and jumped from the roof with me. My unvoiced protests became a silent scream as I felt the gravity pull us down and I could only close my eyes as I desperately held on the only thing that I could grab in fear.

I had nothing against heights, as long as I wasn't falling of course. Especially in this life where a simple fall from the stairs will result in my bones getting crushed and kill me.

"...Hieee? Zero?!" Tsuna exclaimed. I heard something snap and felt the familiar killing intend from the area where Tsuna's voice came from.

"Zero-chan?"

"What the fuck are you doing with the enemy, midget?!"

"So there you are to the EXTREME!"

"Let her go, _now_." I heard Reborn order.

"No." Squalo answered. "And she is the one that doesn't let go of me." I slowly opened my eyes to noticed that I was still holding Squalo's waist as a lifeline even though we already landed.

"T-that was n-not funny." I said when I found my voice again. I tried to let go of the assassin, who was way too amused at my reaction, and scowled when I found out that my body didn't want to work along. I was still paralyzed by the shock of being forced to jump from the roof again. At last, I managed to let go of the man and tried to stand on my own though that didn't exactly work out. My legs gave out and only Squalo's arm around me prevented me from falling.

Today I reconfirmed the fact that being forced to jump of the roof was terrifying.

"Never again." I muttered, though the last time I said that resulted me in jumping again. Really, I should have sent Cozart to prison for that, no matter how ´justified´ the action was. No, actually. The action wasn´t justified at all. Being forced to jump from the rooftops was _never_ justified. He managed to talk his way out of it though.

Squalo simply laughed and handed me over to the gola mosca. The machine restrained me with its metal arms as the memory of a few centuries ago played in my head.

"…Who is this Zero?" Levi asked after the memory of Cozart pushing me off the roof and jumping after me had ended. I looked at the man and tilted my head in confusion and then I realized what he meant. They didn't know it yet, right?

"That is me." I nodded. "My real name is Zero."

"…It's not Nemo?" Lussaria asked. I shook my head in response and the man pouted. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Hmm… because I was kidnapped by you guys?" I sweatdropped. "It is only natural that I don't give my real name to my kidnappers, right?"

The Varia thoughtfully looked at each other again and nodded.

"You have the right mindset." The baby stated. "Not revealing your identity when you are kidnapped to avoid spilling information and actually escaping by making use of the situation is a natural thing for someone in our line of occupations to do."

"Mammy is right, you're suited to become an assassin or Mafioso." Bel agreed with the baby… Mammy? As in Mammon? The hooded illusionist in Milan?

"Are you… Mammon?" I asked. The hooded baby nodded and I sighed in defeat. Of course, it just had to be Mukuro's opponent that was an arcobaleno.

…

"Well then, the guardians of the sun. please come to the center of the ring."

"Hmm, the sun battle is first then… that means that Ryohei nii-san is up first." I muttered. So we will begin with the sun guardian… And in something that resembled a boxing ring as well. Are the arena's based on the fighting styles of the first generation of the Vongola, Knuckle was a boxer after all, or did they choose this kind of arena to give Tsuna's group an advantage?

I suspected that it was the first, though it could be complete coincidence as well.

"That is right, Hibari-chan." Lussaria smiled. I looked incredulously at the man who was still calling me 'Hibari-chan' after I told them that I didn't give them my real name. Did he still think that I really was a ´Hibari´? That was a terrifying thought. "I will win easily… though it is sad that boss isn't here to see me win."

"One thing before we begin." Reborn stated. "If we win, stop trying to get Zero in the Varia. She will _not_ join, no matter what."

"That sounds alright." Squalo smirked. "It's going to be an easy win for us after all."

"Which means that I _have to_ win now." Lussaria cheered and winked at me before walking to the boxing ring. I looked at the assassination squad that simply nodded in agreement and wondered if no one was going to mention the fact that they never told Reborn what their conditions were in this bet…

They probably didn't notice, luckily enough for me.

…

I was really grateful that I had mist flames and that I was able to create illusionary sunglasses. The lights of the arena were literally blinding bright like the sun… Though it could have been my imagination as well because it was sometime around midnight now.

Anyways, the light was blindingly bright.

"How unfair." I scowled. Lussaria had his sunglasses, but Ryohei didn't which was a clear disadvantage. Didn't this count as foul play or something like that? I looked at the judges, the women that let me in, and frowned when they didn't mention a single thing.

Were they hired by the Varia?

I returned my attention to the battle and winced when Ryohei hit Lussaria's knee. That got to hurt… wait. A metal plate in his knee? I frowned at the clear disadvantages that Ryohei got in this battle and wondered where his tutor was… Or _who_, for that matter.

It clearly wasn't a boxer though.

I could see some improvements in Ryohei's attacks, but nothing new. It was clear that the teen was taught other things than boxing, even as someone who never boxed I could see that. Well… Knuckle did _try_ to teach me some boxing of course, but I was never good at fighting like that. The lessons did make me more observant of the movements of a boxer though.

It made me compare every boxer to Knuckle as well.

Ryohei´s movements were nowhere close as Knuckle's smoother moves. Yes, Ryohei´s punches were strong, but Knuckle's fighting style was smoother, less ferocious, graceful as a tiger even. But equally fierce.

It was almost painful to see how much differences there was between their fighting abilities… And yet they were so much alike.

Too much alike.

Boxing was one thing, their looks were another… but their extreme fighting spirit and dying will? Seeing this similarity made me wonder if I was supposed to teach this generation as well…

But I wasn't his tutor. Someone else was, not me. Someone else taught this generation, I only taught Muku-chan…

Was it bad to feel jealous of the tutors of this era? I quickly shook that thought from my mind and returned my attention to the current time. This was not the time to be jealous, Ryohei was struggling right now!

"Come on, Ryohei nii-san." I muttered. "You can do it…"

"Stand up kora!" someone shouted from above. I tore away my eyes from the battle and looked up.

Another arcobaleno?!

"Colonello!" Tsuna shouted to the blonde baby with the blue pacifier that was floating in the sky… no, wait. He was being carried by a bird.

"Voi, that shorty is Colonello the arcobaleno." Squalo muttered, though it somehow sounded as loud as his normal volume. "What is he doing here?"

"It's about time. Show them your true strength, Ryohei." Colonello shouted from his spot in the sky.

"Master Colonello, I've been waiting for those words." Ryohei stated. I looked between the white haired teen and the arcobaleno as I slowly but surely connected the dots.

This was Ryohei's tutor. An arcobaleno. Someone that belonged to the same group as brother…

If someone that belonged in the same group as brother was tutoring the sun guardian, I could be sure that he learned something interesting. Maybe even a special attack like-

"MAXIMUM CANNON!"

_I should have known it._

…

"This is bad…" I muttered. Even with the amazing attack, that was slightly different from Knuckle's maximum cannon as I noticed, Ryohei was losing.

But that would actually make sense, considering that the teen had less training and experience than Lussaria who was _a professional assassin_. One should not expect normal teenagers to win from professionals after all…

Though Giotto did manage to create a strong vigilante group that turned in a mafia Famiglia with determination only…

"Onii-chan?" Kyoko asked as she appeared in the schoolgrounds-

_Wait, what are Kyoko and Hana doing here?!_ I panicked. I thought that only those who have a connection with the Vongola could enter the school grounds! I looked at the two approaching girls and quickly used my illusions to become invisible before they could notice me.

"…That is weird." Hana muttered. "I thought that I saw Zero with those weird monkeys."

_I dodged a bullet with that_, I thought when the teen dismissed it as her imagination. It would have been suspicious to see your absent classmate in the middle of the night… in school even! And suspicion was the last thing that I wanted. Suspicion meant attention and it went against all my teachings to catch too much attention.

I returned my attention to Ryohei and Kyoko and smiled at the scene I saw.

"Determination was all you needed." I whispered as the white haired teen who found his resolve in the arena took his stance. "Shine bright, Ryohei nii-san."

"MAXIMUM CANNON!"

And Lussaria was down. I was sure that the man was still able to fight though- My thoughts paused for a little while when I heard the whirring sound from the gola mosca that was still holding me. I recognized that sound. I knew that sound too well.

The result of this sound managed to blow up three labs at once.

I looked at the machine in fear and tried to wriggle my way out of the arms of the robot before I became a victim to a deadly burst of explosive material. Luckily enough for me, the robot let me go to aim. Sadly enough for Lussaria, the robot was aiming at him.

Just in time, I managed to let myself fall to the ground so the attack of the gola mosca couldn't hit me or my bag and watched the sun guardian of the Varia being shot down in horror. I got up as fast as I could and ran to the battlefield. When I neared the arena I noticed that Lussaria was alive, barely but still alive.

He was lucky that he wasn't shot by the latest kind of explosive bullets that Spanner installed in his mosca's... I have to ask Spanner what the differences are between the gola mosca's I knew and the one on the stolen blueprints. I had to be sure of that, for both for Tsuna's sake and the Varia's.

"Tomorrow evening's battle will be the match between the lightning guardians." I heard one of the identical women state in the background as I was still observing Lussaria's wounds.

The lightning guardian…

Lambo.

No.

The kid wasn't ready.

He was still a child.

_No_.

"Zero, you are half transparent again." Reborn whispered. I looked down and nodded blankly at my babyfied brother before making sure that I was invisible again.

"Please don't tell me that Lambo is going to fight tomorrow." I whispered. Reborn looked away from where I was standing and pulled his fedora over his eyes to hide his expression.

"…It's inevitable… maybe it's better if you don't come to the match tomorrow." Reborn stated softly. "You will only be distracting the stupid cow from his fight."

…

It was almost two o'clock when I reached my home. I was still invisible as I entered the green building and still absentminded when I let myself fall down on one of the couches in the living room.

There were too many things bothering me right now.

Muku-chan's opponent, the gola mosca, Lussaria's wounds, Lambo's fight tomorrow…

One thing was sure, I will not be able to fall asleep easily tonight.

…

**Omake: the best of friends (kind of)**

"I still think that infiltrating the Chiavarone base was a bad idea, Cozart." I whispered to the man next to me. "This is asking to be killed."

"Shh, don't say that out loud Alex. They might hear us and we aren't infiltrating the main base anyways. Just a small casino that they own." The redhead hushed. I shook my head and looked at the dealer of the black jack table. Why did I come along again?

O right, because Cozart already left and because he was a moron that would surely get caught if I wasn't there to help him out.

_Do it for Giotto,_ I tried to convince myself. _Do not flip the table, do not kill this idiot, do not catch too much attention, we just need to gather some information about the Chiavarone boss_. But I knew that it was too late already. We stood out like a sore thumb.

Cozart had his signature bright red hair that was difficult to miss and his reputation as Giotto's friend and I was accompanying this guy. If I only arrived earlier I could disguise us with illusions, but no. Cozart had to rush in without a plan or backup and now we were forced to play this card game like other customers in the casino while we clearly didn't have as much money as the them.

And with us acting so suspicious? It's a miracle that we hadn't been thrown out of the casino yet.

"Black Jack." I sighed as I revealed my cards. If I was stuck in this situation, I will at least enjoy myself and earn some money.

"T-that is your sixth Black Jack in a row, Alex." Cozart hissed. "Could you please cheat in a less obvious way?"

"I'm not cheating." I replied with my pokerface still on. "I don't need to cheat to win card games."

…

Apparently I was too absorbed by playing Black Jack, I always got like this when card games were involved, and now we were recognized as 'spies'… actually, Cozart was recognized as a spy. I was recognized as the 'demon of the port'… though I had no idea what that actually meant.

It still meant that we were both recognized and running away though.

"Why are we running to the roof, Cozart?!" I shouted as we ran up the stairs.

"I thought that you knew why!"

"You are the one who is running in front of me!" I shouted.

"You are the one that caught their attention!" Cozart shouted back.

"I told you that I was sorry already!"

"Well, I don't know! With your kind of pokerface you could _not_ have meant that _at all_!"

"You- you know what? Forget it!" I exclaimed as we both reached the end of the stairs. "Your descendants will have the same trusting issues as you!"

"And your descendants will be as emotionless as you!" Cozart retorted. We looked around for a way out, _why were we even trying to find a way out on the rooftop anyways_, but we couldn't find a way out… or at least I didn't

"…Hey Alex?"

"Yes Cozart?"

"Do you trust me?"

"You ask that after I accused you of having trusting issues?" I deadpanned.

"Do you trust me?" Cozart tried again. I looked in the strange eyes of my friend that showed nothing but determination and nodded. Despite him being an idiot, Cozart was still a friend and someone I could entrust my life with.

"…Of course."

"Then, forgive me for doing this!" Cozart shouted as he pushed me. I didn't expect being pushed and stumbled backward which resulted in me falling from the roof with Cozart jumping after me. Luckily enough, our fall was caught by a huge heap of wool on the roof of the neighboring building.

"Never again." I gasped. Apparently I could _not_ entrust my life to this bastard. "I hate you, Cozart."

"It's official." Cozart nodded. "We are best friends from now on."

"Where did that come from? And I thought that Giotto was your best friend?"

"Well, you still trusted me after a fight like that. Only best friends forgive each other as fast as that and… you're right about Gio. You are my female best friend then."

"…_Female_ best friend?"

"D-don't misunderstand, Al! I meant that I have two lists of best friends and that spot was still open." Cozart explained.

"That is alright then." I sighed, I was relieved that he did not find out that I was an actual girl but that was a close call… wait.

_Is that dynamite falling to us or just my imagination? Lit dynamite? Please let it be my imaginatio- no, damn it's real lit dynamite._

"Cozart?"

"Yes Alex?"

"We have to jump again!"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**So, that was the first battle. Three more battles until Mukuro's fight which probably equals three or four chapters (If everything goes as planned). One of those chapters will probably have someone else to narrate the story... or at least, if everything goes as planned. The Omake is basically the entire relationship between Cozart and Alex summerized in one omake, it was fun to write :). Somehow I got the image of Allen Walker from D. Gray-man in my head when Alex said that she doesn't have to cheat to win card games (though he does cheat) XD.**

**I'm not too sure about that yet, ****ddmahan922. I have five different ways in which the future chapters could turn out and in several, there is a possibility ;).**

**Thanks for the tips, Claed. I personally think that I've improved a bit since chapter three, but like I mentioned English is not my native language so the possibility of mistakes is always here. Maybe I will go back and rewrite the first chapters at a point, but right now i want to focus on the future chapters. (And as you may have noticed by now, Zero is indeed a girl)**

**To ****Raven-V-Blackshade and Akayuki Novak: ****I'm glad that you liked the omake I guess ;).**

**To Reaper Senpai and ADDBaby: the reaction will come soon kufufufu... **

**Yeah, Mortal, I was kind of watching the movie back then (I loved it :D)**

**And thanks to all the others for their support as well! We reached the 200 in favs, which means one thing!**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 13**

It is a Sinclair tradition, they said. It will be fun, they said. And yet, Renato couldn't help but think that it is only annoying as he looked at the man in front of him. Screw tradition, he was going to kill this man when he finds a gun. There must be a gun somewhere in this household, the matriarch of this household was a hitwoman for god's sake!

Tradition be damned, Renato didn't care about the stupid tradition of 'letting possible future clients or bosses babysit your children to see how they fare', he was going to break it and kill the man. Many similar thought ran through Renato's mind as he continued glaring at the soon-to-be-dead-future-Vongola-Nono and the honestly offending smile that the man wore.

"Stop smiling." Renato ordered before turning away and beginning his quest to find a goddamned gun. The smile on Timoteo's face annoyed Renato to no end. It was kind and caring, but oh-so-obviously fake. This man needed to learn how to smile properly, it was almost painful how fake the smile was. No, it simply_ is_ painful. The man needed some lessons in smiling, but he could only receive that from the best…

And there was no way that Renato was going to allow the fake smiling forty-something years old man close to his precious little sister.

And now was the perfect moment for murder because Renata was still in their neighbor's house.

So where is the gun?

…

Fifteen minutes.

Renato was looking for a gun for a full _fifteen minutes_ before returning to the living room where he left his 'babysitter'. Without his gun. It seemed that Serena and Renatus Sinclair knew their son too well and took every single weapon with them, save for the cutlery… But even Renato wasn't so desperate to use cutlery to commit murder.

When Renato opened the door to the living room, with the full intend to order his babysitter to stop smiling or to use the cutlery as last resort, he did not expect to see a battlefield.

Cards were littered _everywhere_ and there were even cards sticking out of the wall. Renato approached one of the cards that were stuck on the wall with a strange feeling and pulled the card out…

_Karuta cards?_

Renato, with the card still in his hand, slowly walked to the dining room in suspicion. There were only two people in this household that would even think of playing a Japanese card game like karuta and both of those members of the Sinclair family were not supposed to be at home. One of them was with his mother and the other was at the neighbor's. And yet, more and more proof of the presence of the latter appeared as Renato came closer to his destination.

The raven haired teen desperately tried to ignore the card house that could not be called a card house anymore, the structure reminded Renato way too much of the Eiffel tower for it to be a house, as he finally was standing in front of the door that separated the living room from the dining room.

Just as he suspected. Renata was back. Renata was playing card games against their babysitter. Renata was destroying the said babysitter. With the most bright, or sadistic as Renato's mind supplied, smile that she could muster.

Renata was playing _card games._

"You're back Reborn!" Renata beamed at her brother when he stepped in the room. "We were just about to begin a game of poker. Do you want to join?"

The answer was obvious.

"No." Renato answered. The teen ignored the man that was desperately pleading him to save him with his eyes and shook his head again. He knew better than playing card games with Renata. She would destroy every opponent with skills that professionals would kill for and still smile the smile that an unexperienced victim could not say no to.

Renato knew it, he was an experienced victim.

The older Sinclair sibling successfully looked away from the pleading look and the sparkling smile and walked off to his next quest. To find a camera to record this. His father and mother would love the blackmail material and there was no way that Renato was going to pass on recording the smile-less face of the future Vongola Nono…

**...Zero/Alex(is)/Renata may or may not be a bit too obsessed with card games so now and then. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 35: between mists

"_Why are you sending me away, teacher…" I pouted at my teacher who was in his sixth disguise now. A middle aged man with the usual tribal clothes and blindfold. The not-really-a-brunet-but-now-seemingly-brown-haired-man smiled apologetically at me and ruffled my hair in response._

"_Sorry for that Al, but there are things that only mists can teach each other. For I'm not a mist, I can't help you in that matter."_

"_Fine." I sulked. "Who is going to be my tutor then?"_

"_My ex-student, your sempai."_

"…_I had a sempai?"_

"_Yes, he will be training you until you truly understand what your role as a mist is." The man looked up when he heard the soft knock on the door and smiled. "There he is, welcome back to Italy-_

…

"…Zero-chan?"

"Hmm, five more minutes." I muttered.

"But… you're sleeping on the couch."

"That is where I was supposed to sleep, sempai. Five more minutes and I will cook breakfast…"

"And you have to train Mukuro-sama for the ring battles."

Ring battles…

Mukuro.

Arcobaleno.

Gola mosca.

_Lambo_.

I opened my eyes and shot up as my mind caught up with the memories. Chrome, who was sitting next to me, giggled and smiled at my reaction.

"Good morning Zero-chan."

"...Good morning Chrome." I sighed and relaxed after realizing where and when I was… Sleeping on the couch in Nanimori, the morning after the first ring battle.

"Why were you sleeping here, Zero-chan?" Chrome asked before her eyes widened in shock. "No, Mukuro-sama couldn't have... it's too soon." I heard her whisper.

"What are you talking about?" I sweatdropped. "I was just... worrying about the ring battles and fell asleep on the couch." Chrome seemed to relaxed at that and chuckled softly to herself.

"That is good then, I told him to take it easy." She muttered some other things as well, but I couldn't quite catch that.

"...Take what easy?" I frowned. The training?

"Who is the sempai you were talking about?" Chrome asked, avoiding my question. I blinked blankly at that and tilted my head in confusion.

"Sempai?" I muttered. "…I was talking about sempai?"

"You were muttering about your sempai when I tried to wake you up." Chrome nodded. "…So, who is your sempai?"

"Well… my sempai?" I answered hesitantly. Chrome sounded strangely forceful just now, something that actually made me consider overthinking several options in answering this question.

Sempai was sempai, nothing more and nothing less. Not a friend, not an enemy… just an acquaintance, just sempai.

"He tutored me for a while… that is it." I frowned. For one week to be exact, not long enough to figure out what kind of person he was… hell even years weren't enough to figure out what kind of weird person our teacher was. I could have expected him to be as weird as teacher. Anyways, we only knew each other for one week and the next time I saw him was also the last time I saw him.

At our teacher's funeral.

"I have to go to school now, good luck with training Mukuro-sama." Chrome smiled, apparently she was satisfied with the answer, before running off. I stared at the door that just closed behind the girl and noted that I was just interrogated by my own daughter… but why?

"That was weird." I decided before yawning again and deciding to make breakfast as usual.

…

"Good morning." I greeted Seth when he joined me at the table for breakfast.

"Good morning Zero-sama." Seth nodded. His clothes and duckling patterned tie that were slightly singed and the vials that contained new bright colored liquids indicated that he was awake for quite a while now.

"Were you mixing new chemicals, uncle Seth?" I sweatdropped. Seth wasn't the kind of person to voluntarily wake up early, but there were a few cases in which he could wake up without losing his self-control.

One of them was to wake up early to mix new explosive liquids that were inspired by his dreams. Those explosives were more often than not the most dangerous kinds of explosives that he mixed. The only kinds that were more dangerous were the kinds he mixed when he was totally wasted, I forbade alcohol from coming within a ten meter radius from Seth ever since that time, or when he was close to exploding.

"Yes." The brunet answered, looking completely satisfied with the homemade explosives that were now in their vials. I shook my head and decided against asking him what he made this time. I was sure that if I knew what it was supposed to do, I wouldn't be able to concentrate while training Muku-chan out of worry.

"What are you going to do today, uncle Seth?" I asked instead. Seth looked up and smirked at me.

"I was thinking about testing-"

"I get it." I interrupted quickly before he could say what his new explosives did. "…Be sure to take uncle Chris with you so nothing will get more destroyed than it is supposed to be… take the fifth basement if needed"

"Sure Zero-sama." Seth chuckled at that. Both he and I knew that the fifth basement was the most explosion-proof one in this house. "And what kind of training have you planned for 'Muku-chan'?"

"Hmm, I was actually planning on a spar with me." I mused. That would be the best option, considering the fact that Muku-chan's opponent was going to be an arcobaleno. It has been a while since I could go all out as well… alright maybe not _all_ out, but close to it.

"…Third basement please." Seth nodded after staring incredulously at me for a little while. "And I want a copy of the records."

The third basement was the basement that had the testing site with the best security camera's.

…

"You… are telling me to fight you?" Mukuro asked me while holding his trident with his right hand. I looked amused at the incredulous comment and gave the teen a flower-smile.

"You may even wear the Vongola ring while fighting me. The ring is like a catalyst for dying will flames and will make it easier to use illusions."

"…You-"

"Yes, I'm telling you to fight me." I nodded. The pineapple haired teen stared at me with a disbelieving glint in his mismatched eyes. I stared back and kept on smiling while wondering what was wrong.

"You are aware that my six paths of hell can kill you easily, right?" the teen asked.

"…I forgot about that." I muttered. Mukuro looked less disbelieving and more amused at that. "Well, that makes it even better. You can use that too then." I added and Mukuro's disbelieve returned.

"…Why are you taking such… extreme measures?"

"Hmm… because I believe that your opponent is an arcobaleno." I explained. "A skilled illusionist as well and I believe that you never had to fight a real illusionary fight. Your experience in physical fighting is good, but your experience in mental fighting is less. So, you need an advantage."

"And your solution for that is to make me fight you with handicaps?"

"Indeed." I smiled as I ignited some of my flames. "Ready?"

"What do you think?" Mukuro asked almost sarcastically, but I didn't wait for his answer. Mukuro reacted just in time to counter my illusion that would have rendered him unable to fight if he couldn't reject it.

"Just a small advice: your opponent will not wait for an answer, Muku-chan. When the battle begins, the battles begin." I smirked. I started throwing random illusions at Mukuro, ranging from real illusions of attacking crows to ones that affects the mind and paralyzes the body with an overload of senses.

The blue haired teen was surprisingly good at avoiding the illusions that I threw at him, he could sense the differences in the normally flame-less air easily. I couldn't sense dying will flames as well as Mukuro, but I could notice the differences once I made contact with it. So dispelling illusions when I was hit with it was easy because I knew when it was real or not. My experience of past life's helped as well.

"Another advice, Muku-chan: experience can be used as inspiration in illusions and both you and I have an advantage… we have several lifetimes of experience." I smiled as I sidestepped an snake from Mukuro's third path of hell. The blue haired teen seemed to understand my advice because his illusions began to become more realistic after I told him that.

…_if it could be called realistic._

"Pillars of magma?" I mused out loud.

"The six hells have some interesting things that I can use as inspiration." Mukuro smirked, though something was off. Mukuro's hands were slightly shaking and his expression wasn't entirely natural. This wasn't what I meant, not at all. This experience was clearly not something he should be using... or even considering using.

It clearly made him remember something he didn't want to remember and I suspected it to be the memories of the experimentations of the Estraneo.

Once again, I noticed that my student was more like me than I would have liked. I was the same. I did the same when I didn't know any better. But would I be able to do the same thing to shake him out of it? Am I strong enough to do it? Am I mentally able to do it?

I looked at Mukuro, who was slightly paler than before and nodded. I had to do it. I had to be strong enough. _I will be strong enough_. So I took a deep breath and concentrated.

"Hmm, interesting you say?" I whispered, both trying to convince myself of my purpose and to distract myself from what I was going to do. And the world fell apart.

The pillars of magma were not steady pillars anymore but distorted like the images that could sometimes been seen underwater. The entire room got a slight blue tint and everything began to float.

Mukuro and me included.

"Enjoying this sensation?" I asked the teen whose breathing was starting to become irregular.

"Kufufu, you can't say I am." Mukuro chuckled. The chuckle was slightly weaker than the usual and soon I could see what I was waiting for. Slightly twitching hands, the trident falling from his hands, unfocused eyes, slow and irregular breathing, blank stares. I nodded softly and promptly cut off every illusion in the room.

It was done. I survived. I did it. _I'm fine now_... however I couldn't entirely convince myself, I was never able to convince myself.

"You lost, Muku-chan." I whispered while resisting the urge of coughing and throwing up as the teen started to cough violently himself. "You lost when you lost your sight of reality."

"What was that." Mukuro managed to ask between coughs.

"Something that I don't really like to remember." I admitted. "The sensation of drowning."

…

Mukuro found himself sitting in one of the green couches of the living room with a green cup with hot chocolate in his hands not long after his spar with Zero. The said girl was sitting next to him with her own cup with hot chocolate in one hand and a remote control in her other hand.

The blue haired teen could see the many familiar scenes flash by on the screen of the television that was located across a small table. Scenes of this very house. A scene with Zero's uncles surrounded with flashes of neon colors flashed by and the scenes stopped by a very familiar place.

"Oya, the third basement?" Mukuro questioned.

"Indeed." Zero nodded while she continued fumbling with the remote control. "We are going to watch our battle."

The teen looked at his tutor and shook his head. He would never be able to understand what the girl went through in her past life's. She told him about a few experiences already, even confessing about the fact that she almost drowned, but for her to use that experience in a fight?

Right now, she didn't even look affected by a horrible memory like that.

"Here we go." Zero smiled satisfied as she pressed on the play button. The television started playing their fight now… but not as how Mukuro remembered it to be. The pillars of fire and crows that were made by illusions were visible on the screen, but nothing of the other illusions. And something was very different in the scene from what Mukuro could remember from the spar.

Zero was _clearly_ affected by her own illusion while he couldn't see that before. The girl clearly had the same symptoms that Mukuro had when they were exposed to the experience of drowning, maybe even worse than his.

"_This_ is how the fight looked like in reality?" he asked with a tone that was close to anger. Zero looked up and nodded.

"The true role of the mist is to create something from nothing, and nothing from something. Bewildering the enemy, to render the Famiglia's true form intangible with visions of deceit." She explained. "The scene you see here is different from what you saw when you lost your vision of reality because I hid it with illusions."

"Why did you use this memory if it affects you as well?!" Mukuro scowled, unable to look at the television any longer. Unable to look at the suffering look of the albino girl on the screen. The gasps of her breathing, the fluttering of her eyelashes and the deaddeaddeaddead and yet determined look in her eyes.

"Memories that had the most impact on you are always the memories that creates the most vibrant illusions, especially the bad memories. Especially trauma's. But those memories are the most dangerous kind of memories you can use in illusions as well. I needed you to know that your 'interesting' experiences in hell is the same as my experience of drowning: a last resort." Zero stated with honest eyes. Mukuro stared in those warm pale purple eyes for a good five minutes before nodding slowly and reluctantly looking away.

There were too many thoughts occupying his mind right now. Why the girl would suffer, just to teach him not to use too many of his worst memories. How her eyes can still be strong and warm after this. _Wheter she could see that her suffering hurt him as well._

"_Never_ use this again when you teach me." He ordered, trying to ignore his last thought but miserably failing to do so. Zero gave him a flowery and sparkly smile and nodded.

"I won't." She promised. "But this is what I needed to teach you before you act too fast like I once did."

"Did your teacher give you this lesson as well?" Mukuro asked.

"No, he didn't." Zero frowned before looking out of a window to the rain that slowly but surely turned into a storm. "He couldn't, because this was a lesson that only mists could teach each other. This lesson is the true burden of being a mist."

…

Even after Mukuro fell asleep, I was awake and staring at the lightning that struck the ground from the window in my room. Lambo was fighting right now. Did he have a tutor? Was it going to be alright? Will everything be fine?

Another lightning bolt hit the something that made the ground rumble and I tried to look away from the windows, tried to focus on doing my paperwork, tried to focus in general…

But it was impossible.

I was too worried about Lambo. Lambo was just a child, too young to know the dark world of the mafia. Too young to fight like this. Too young to know the pain of being hurt or hurting others… but then again, I was as well if I didn't consider my mental age.

I was only five when I decided to be a part of the mafia and created a crime syndicate. I was only ten when I established the alliance between the strongest Famiglia in the world and my Famiglia. Too young to do any of those. Was this worry what my uncles felt as well when I ignored my physical age and acted on my mental age?

I shook my head in confusion and remembered my meeting with the Vongola Nono. It didn't make any sense… the man seemed so proud of Tsuna, so determined to allow the Vongola change into what it was supposed to be. So kind and full of resolve.

It just didn't feel right how he decided against making Tsuna the Decimo so suddenly. How he decided to start a fight for the Decimo-title. How he made _children_ fight _professional assassins_…

"Be sure to shock them, Lambo-kun." I muttered, knowing that asking him to win was too much and fully aware that he wasn't able to hear me. I did feel a bit better when I said that though. Maybe my message reached the kid.

…

"I didn't think that I would see you guys again." The Lambo from twenty years in the future smiled at the younger shocked faces of the Vongola's. "How nostalgic… of course she isn't here now. She has always been the busy one and she has always been the same. Sometimes I wonder why I never made the connection between her and the nice lady from the future. Well, it is all in the past now."

Lambo looked at the shocked young faces of the ones that he came to know in his childhood once again before looking at Levi, who was looking ready to kill him anytime and preferably soon.

"But it seems that this is not the time to be emotional." Lambo chuckled mirthlessly.

'_Be sure to shock them, Lambo-kun_.' Lambo heard a voice echo in a faraway memory.

"I will, Zero-nee." Lambo smiled. "I will."

…

**Omake: an echo of a faraway voice **

_8 years in the future_

"Why dancing?" A thirteen years old Lambo asked his surrogate brother. It has been a good eight years since he met his Tsuna-nii and Lambo has grown a lot since then. He outgrew his Afro and decided to straighten his hair, though it is still a curly mess. His fighting style was developed and its progress was quite nice. The now-teenager planned to train today, but that plan was thwarted by someone who wasn't even in the country.

"Because Reborn told us to." Tsuna reminded the teen. "I don't agree with it either, but Reborn wanted the two of us to learn ballroom dancing."

"I don't want to." Lambo stated firmly.

"At least Reborn chose a teacher we knew." Tsuna laughed.

"...Who?" Lambo frowned. "...Don't tell me that it is Mukuro. Please don't tell me that it is that pineapple. I don't care if he can even teach us the samba, please not that guy."

"No he isn't, but it is the one who taught him. You know her, she has been here for a while already." Tsuna smiled. Lambo looked at the twenty two years old man and frowned when he saw that smile. That bright smile was reserved for his family and loved ones, but currently not aimed at him.

"I liked it when your hyper intuition wasn't developed _that_ well." A familiar voice sighed before the owner of the voice literally appeared out of nowhere. "I miss the time you greeted me with a cute shout of 'hieee'."

It took three seconds for Lambo to recover from the initial shock and surprise when Zero Estraneo appeared out of nowhere. Still the same as always, warm pale purple eyes, white curly hair that was cut shorter because some experiments of the Neo Estraneo burned her hair, sparkling smiles with flowers, still a head shorter than Tsuna-nii, still enjoying surprising people with her sudden appearances.

"Zero-nee!" Lambo cheered. "How long will you be staying this time? Did that pineapple do anything to you? How is your Famiglia? No, wait. Answer this first: Are you our teacher? Please say yes, please don't tell me that the pinea- Mukuro is going to teach us."

"Kufufufu, yes I am. Reborn informed me that you guys still needed to know how to dance last night with a letter and package that shouldn't be able to be arrived so quickly." Zero chuckled.

"Last night? I thought that he was in Columbia for a mission?" Lambo wondered out loud.

"He was probably done with his hunt for the targets and suddenly decided to arrange this." Zero shrugged. "He is probably hunting for coffee beans right now, he certainly has the time for it. I mean, he even sent me this dress."

"As always, Reborn has good taste." Tsuna chuckled.

"Yes, though I do wonder why he sent me it when he knows that I have enough thanks to M.M." Zero sighed, remembering the shopping sprees of hell.

Lambo shivered at his own memory of being forced to shop with the redhead and fully agreed that there was no need for extra clothes as long as M.M. was still alive and money existed on this world…

"As long as it isn't Mukuro that will teach us, I will be fine." Lambo shrugged in a desperate attempt to forget the horrible,_ horrible _memory_._ "So, what are we going to do-"

**BOOOOOM**

"Pink smoke?" Tsuna coughed. "Don't tell me that…"

"It is the ten years bazooka." Zero nodded as she gestured to the small kid that replaced the Lambo of their time. The three years old kid looked up at the young man and woman who stared at him and blinked blankly. Who are they? What happened to aunty Octavia? Where was he?

"It is alright, Lambo-kun." Tsuna smiled. Lambo's eyes widened at the warmth of the beautiful smile of the brunet and he gasped. Was he dead? Was that an angel?

"Don't worry, Lambo-kun. You will be returned to your home soon, you just have to wait for a small five minutes." The albino flower-smiled and Lambo was sure of it now despite understanding what the woman said. He died. He was hit by that weird weapon and the angels had taken him to heaven, because what other place could this be than heaven?

"What is wrong?" Tsuna panicked when the tears appeared in Lambo's eyes, he gave Zero a desperate look and the girl shook her head. It was like most of the men she knew reacted like this when a kid begins to cry.

"…Here Lambo-kun." Zero smiled as she gave Lambo some candy. "Don't worry about it, you will go back to where you came from. I promise."

"Pwomise?" Lambo muttered as he took the candy.

"Promise." Zero flower-smiled. "O, before I forget to tell you! Be sure to shock them, Lambo-kun."

"Shock who-" Tsuna began, but he was interrupted by another burst of pink smoke

"…Did I miss something?" Lambo asked when he returned from the past.

"kufufufu, nothing." Zero laughed.

"Like I asked, who?" Tsuna tried again.

"Hmm, that is a secret." Zero smiled.

"Sure…" Tsuna sweatdropped. "And where did that candy come from?"

"The candy I gave Lambo-kun?" Zero shrugged. "It's a habit for me to carry candy around because of Spanner. He made it, you know?"

Lambo looked at the two with a smile when he remembered the first time that he really met them. The old memory was blurry, but it was still one of the most precious memories he had. It was that memory that made him yearning for the future he was in now...

"I'll be sure to shock anyone you want me to, Zero-nee." Lambo smiled softly at the old memory. It was the reason why he fought to be with to the ones he loved the most after all.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**A little more of Zero's/ Alex(is)' past is revealed in this chapter, though I think that more mysteries appeared just now… oh well, some of these mysteries will be solved soon. Another look in the future as well, this was the first time that Lambo arrived in the future and the first time he met Zero and Tsuna. And just for the records, Seth never got his copy of the spar and the crows that Zero used were a hint of her past life as a Sinclair. Serena was called the scarecrow after all ;D. (Plus, I think that the little things that Zero could notice about Mukuro were things that only she could see because she knows him better than he could expect.)**

**To YomuHime: I'm not sure if the arcobaleno arc will even appear in this fic. I considered it, but it seemed unnatural with the events that I had planned for the future arc.**

**That is an interesting thought ddmahan922. In a twisted world like that, Zero would be forced to wear cute clothes by Lussaria and because she doesn't like attention she assassinates while she is invisible. That means that rumors of the Varia having a real ghost as a member will be born and everyone in the Mafia suddenly becomes paranoid of dolls and children rooms.**

**I hope that your exams went well, Viviene001 and if they aren't over yet: good luck.**

**That is right Reaper Senpai, the first time that Zero or Alexis in this case was introduced to cards was the roots of her love-and-almost-obsession for cards and card games. The whole reason of this was Frederic Chevalier, Alexis' grandfather, who liked to perform magic tricks with cards and her teacher who liked card games a bit too much.**

**Believe me, Drem, the Varia did notice but they lost a bet with the sun arcobaleno. Aka the one guy you do not cross. The reason why Zero couldn't escape with illusions was because there was only one way out of the school and she knew that the Varia was faster than her.**

**Kufufufu, thank you Alice aquabld, it has indeed been a long long journey.**

**Once again, thank you for all your support my dear readers! We have exceeded the 250 mark for both reviews and follows for this fic! Sometimes I wonder if some of the readers look at the amount of favs, follows, chaps or reviews to see if there will be a Sinclair omake or not, but you guys deserve it!**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 14**

'Parents visitation day' was the word synonymous to 'hell' to Renato Sinclair because both his father and mother would be in the classroom to make the life of the teacher miserable and by extension, Renato's life as well. His mother would always wear a small smile on this dreaded day… which was combined with the most serious business face that she had.

And her 'business' is _assassination_.

The poor English teacher was already shaking and stuttering with the pressure of Serena Sinclair's appearance alone and this teacher was still lucky. Renatus Sinclair was on the parents visitation day of Renata this time. The last time it was only Renato who attended school, so last time the teacher had to face the combined pressure of his father and mother. Fortunately, there was always the presence of Renata to sooth the pressure.

But the pressure of being watched by the best hitwoman in the world and a man from the Sinclair family outweighed the warm smiles of the younger Sinclair sibling.

And now he was thinking about Renata, Renato prayed for his little sister to survive the humiliation that their father would bring her by his appearance. While his mother was scary, Renatus was… critical towards the teachers. He could always correct them and it never ended well for the teachers that Renato had before.

And then the embarrassment came from the incredulous stares from his classmates and their parents... God, he _hated_ parents visitation day.

Renato was still mourning for the dignity of his little sister when he faintly heard someone knocking on the door.

"C-come in." The English teacher stuttered and when the door opened, he fainted. Renato didn't blame him, he couldn't. Because Renatus was standing there. Renatus Sinclair. _Renatus Sinclair._

"What are you doing here, dear?" Renato heard his mother ask and Renato could _feel_ the gazes of his classmates and their parents turn to him and burn in his back.

"You will see why." Renatus shrugged before standing next to his wife and smirking ominously at the class. "You will see…"

'No', Renato wanted to say. He did_ not_ want to find out, thank you very much.

"Excuse me, class." The principle of the school stated when he walked in the classroom with some men to take the unconscious teacher away. "The history teacher has _run away_. So until we have found a replacement for this incompetent teacher, you will have the student with the best marks for history of the school as your history teacher." The elderly man smiled calmly before following the men and unconscious teacher away.

Renato looked at his parents and couldn't help but think that it was their fault. Not anyone could make a teacher from a mafia school run away… That and Renata once complained about this teacher being a bad history teacher and Renata knew her… history…

_Wait._

It didn't take too long before Renato was watching the door to his classroom in horror, he didn't even hear his idiotic classmate say something to him.

"Are you thinking about the same person as me kora?"

"Kufufufu, excuse me for my intrusion. My name is Renata Sinclair and I'll be the history teacher of this class until a replacement has been found." A four years old girl smiled as she walked in the classroom with a small ladder. The students watched the black haired girl in silence as she put the ladder behind the desk and climbed on the ladder to oversee the class properly.

Once again, Renato could feel the gazes of his classmates and their parents turn to him. He was already thinking that this day was the worst parents visitation day when some of the classmates and parents started mumbling about another Sinclair genius or when he heard the squeals of 'cute' and the sounds of camera's snapping. The fact that his mother was one of the parents that enthusiastically took pictures and that his father was recording everything with a camera made the day even better.

_Note the sarcasm._

Had Renato mentioned that he hated parents visitation day already?

**Omake 3: the daily life of the Sinclair part 15**

School was tolerable at most on Monday's. After the usual hectic weekends in the Sinclair household, the almost peaceful lessons in the mafia-specialized school were boring. Yes, another verbal, borderline physical, fight between two mafia-heirs had broken out and the chemistry teacher was close to being assassinated by a bad attempt of mixing chemicals.

Or a good one if you consider the fact that the green haired brat meant to kill the teacher.

_And all of that in the first period only. _

But it was still boring according to Renato, someone who was used to daily assassination-training attempts of the number one hitwoman in the world and the more frequent than he would have liked one-sided verbal fights that his father put up… compared to whatever he had to put up with in the weekends, school was honestly boring.

The next period, history, was even more boring than usual. Though the principal did his best to recruit a competent history teacher, the lessons of this teacher were dull compared to the vibrant lessons that Renata gave the class.

He.

Was.

_Bored_.

And if there was anything that should be feared, then it should be a bored Sinclair. The most dangerous kind of Sinclair after a serious or determined one. And the class knew that, the teacher did not. The classmates knew what would happen if the teacher did not shut up soon, the teacher did not. The class had experience with a bored Sinclair, the teacher did not.

So while the students were trembling in fear because of Renato's bored expression, the teacher continued his lesson. His boring lesson. His lesson that somehow managed to get a bored Sinclair even more bored.

The students that were sitting in the seats around Renato were already struggling to not faint at the massive presence of a bored Sinclair, which meant that they almost jumped up and cheered out loud when they felt pressure fade away.

The students saw the visiting raven haired girl as an angel that saved them from her demon-brother, the teacher did not.

Once the man saw the younger Sinclair sibling, he trembled in something akin to fear, looked around for a way out of this classroom and promptly jumped out of the window, regardless of the fact that it was the third floor.

"Well… that was unexpected." Renata Sinclair muttered at the weird scene.

"Chaos Renata. Did you have this guy as your teacher before?" Renato asked his little sister. The four years old girl dropped some papers on the teacher's desk before walking to her brother and nodding.

"Once. It was boring." Renata pouted and Renato's classmates couldn't help the shiver to their spine. No matter how cute this girl was, they should not forget that she was a Sinclair as well…

Renato disguised a laugh as a cough at that. Though Renata was indeed a Sinclair, and a bored Sinclair will always be a dangerous person to be around with, she only chased her history teachers away. The girl knew too much about history according to her history teachers and always wanted to know more about history... So she asked questions. It could be considered normal to ask teachers about their lessons, but Renata's questions actually chased the teachers away.

According to what Renato managed to gather, the prides of the teachers were hurt when a four years old girl could understand more of their job than themselves... their prides were even _crushed_ when they couldn't answer a 'simple' question, making them fear the girl and run away at sight.

At least she saved the class from a Sinclair that was almost bored to death because of that.

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 36: the household of madness

"He is the number 'one genius of the Varia', or so he said…" Gokudera muttered to himself as he walked back to his apartment. "And then he told me to go home!" The teen growled and dropped the box of paper airplanes on the ground in a fit of anger, though the dull sound of a carton box with paper airplanes falling to the ground was not satisfying at all.

Being dismissed by Shamal was bad enough as it was, but taking this box with him? Gokudera glared at the damned box and considered kicking it away… but in the end decided against it. He folded every singe one of those planes himself and the thought that he wasted his own efforts annoyed the silver haired teen more than he would like to admit it.

"…Tch, I should have thrown this at Shamal." Gokudera grumbled before picking the box from the ground and walking to his apartment again. "That would have made the efforts worth _something_."

It was not like the planes could serve another purpose than training, that was why Shamal made him folding these after all. But the efforts ended up being useless as Gokudera was sent back by the damned pervert. _With the box._

Gokudera did understand why he was sent back though, it was very sensible even. The weak died in the harsh world of the mafia and this world really was _harsh_, merciless even. Gokudera understood that he had to figure out how his own technique worked to survive, but couldn't his tutor give him a hint _at least_?

The only thing the useless pervert said was that all the ones that blindly followed orders were already dead and that all the surviving people that Shamal knew were idiots… wait.

…

_Flashback_

"The ones left might have some abilities, but they're all idiots." Shamal stated before shivering and correcting himself. "_Almost_ every one of them are idiots."

"Almost?" Gokudera blinked. It was not like Shamal to take back whatever he said.

"No one says that Joseph, or _that family_ for that matter, is an idiot without being traumatized." Shamal muttered while slowly recovering from his weird state and returning his attention to his pupil. "The point is that you're too weak. You are making your tutor lose face."

"Says the fucker that shivered in fright at _the thought_ of calling someone an idiot."

…

"The only question left is… who is Joseph?" Gokudera wondered and then he remembered. Shamal had a friend. A _friend_! A _male_ friend! Joseph was a name that was commonly used for males! And the only male friend of Shamal that Gokudera knew of lived in Nanimori!

…

Now Gokudera was standing in front of the green door of the midget's house with the box of paper planes still in his arms, he wondered if it was a good idea to rush here without going back to his apartment first. If he could believe the midget and Juudaime, the people of this household were totally crazy. What did the midget and Juudaime say again?

…Right, something about an uncle on his period and green explosions.

"Hello?" One of the midget's uncles asked when he opened the door. It was the grey haired uncle that still made Gokudera uncomfortable with the fact that he looked strangely familiar… how was he called again. Something like uncle Chris?

"…Is Joseph-san home?" Gokudera asked, not really sure if he ever heard the full names of the males of the 'Neo Estraneo household'. He only knew that this uncle was called Chris, though it could easily be a nickname, and that the one that Shamal refers as his only male friend was called Seth by the midget and Joseph by others.

"Joseph? He is…" The older male began before looking inside the house and looking back at the teen in front of the house. "Busy."

"Busy?"

"Believe me, you don't want to know… rather. You don't want to get caught up with the madness."

"What 'madness' are you talking about, Chris?" A good-natured voice asked, but Gokudera couldn't help the cold shiver through his spine. It was a terrifying kind of good-natured voice, the one of a disapproving grandparent or something like that.

"Run." Chris ordered the teen and Gokudera acted on honed survival instincts. He dropped his box and ran. He ran as fast as he could together with the grey haired man.

"No way in hell that you guys are getting away." The other uncle of the midget stated terrifyingly calmly.

"Shit, duck!" Chris cursed as he pushed Gokudera to the ground. The bomber didn't even have the time to close his eyes when the world literally exploded into neon colors.

"What was that?" Gokudera coughed.

"The madness you didn't want to get caught up with." Chris answered and everything went blank… or purple.

…

"…So, it was just a_ test-run_ of new kinds of explosives?" Gokudera scowled when the two uncles finished their explanation.

"It was supposed to be one." Chris muttered under his breath. "It was _supposed_ to be one."

"Oh shut up, we both know that everything will end up just fine." Joseph shrugged calmly.

"Everything will end up _just fine_?! You know how many people you have traumatized already with your so-called test-runs, Joseph?!" Chris shouted exasperated and Gokudera immediately knew why Shamal was so terrified of his male friend.

The brunet, no matter how calm he seemed, was clearly dangerous. Clearly. Kind of like the ninth boss of the Vongola who hides his more dangerous traits behind a graceful and professional smile or like the calm storm arcobaleno if Gokudera could believe the rumors.

'Unintentionally' deceiving.

Definitely dangerous.

_A time bomb. _

"Nevermind that." Joseph shrugged before turning his attention to Gokudera, who finally snapped out of his stupor and eyed the man suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

"I came for advice. I need to be stronger before my battle tonight." Gokudera stated while swallowing his not-fear for the calmer uncle. _Do it for Juudaime_, he thought to himself as the hazel eyes of Shamal's male friend narrowed into something that looked like a terrifying glare, _don't run away_.

"…You are Shamal's protégé." The man stated after a few long seconds. "You should be asking Shamal."

"That pervert didn't even give me a single useful hint of what to do to get stronger." The teen deadpanned.

"He did it on purpose." Joseph dismissed that comment. "I know that guy. No matter how perverted he is, once he decides to do something he will see it to the end… unless something more important happens and he decides to trouble you with his burdens instead. Believe me, I have the experience. More than I would have wanted."

"And Joseph can't help you with dynamite-issues." Chris added when he noticed the wounds he recognized as wounds from dynamite, being in a inventors Famiglia does wonders to the ability to recognize different kinds of wounds, and before the brunet could start reciting a ten pages long speech about his 'friend'. "This madman _loves_ chemical explosives, but he is useless with explosive gunpowder filled sticks."

"I can't help it that I'm unable to aim with them, even _he_ was never able to teach me." Joseph shrugged, not actually denying the fact that he was a madman as Gokudera noticed. The teen made a mental note to stay away from future test-runs. "But if you want to get stronger before tonight, I suggest that you look for Zero-sama."

"…Why would I have to look for the midget?" Gokudera frowned. What could an eleven years old girl do in a short amount of time to help him getting stronger? It was not like she was an arcobaleno like Reborn or something… though the hitman did show his respect, and strangely enough affection, for the young girl so now and then.

"She is the most knowledgeable person about dying will flames in the mafia so she is bound to be able to help you." Joseph answered. "Ranking Fuuta ranked her as that, by the way."

"…" Gokudera didn't know what to say about that, but one thing was sure. If it wasn't raining at the time that this ranking was made, it must be true. But in the end, Gokudera had his doubts in believing this. The girl was _eleven_!

"She is currently training the mist guardian though, so be careful if you decide to go to her now." Chris added and at that moment, Gokudera knew that it had to be the truth. Reborn wouldn't allow just anyone to tutor a guardian after all.

"We will return to our experiments then, you can join if you won't visit Zero-sama and have nothing else to do-" Joseph began, but there was no need to finish. There was no way that Gokudera was going to let this man finish this sentence if the first part was enough to make the other uncle pale a lot.

"I will go to the midget." Gokudera decided in an attempt to escape the only male friend that Shamal had. Spending too much time with this man was slowly making Gokudera more and more paranoid of the brunet…

_Whose idea was it again to visit this madman?_

…

"Do you think that he is dead, Zero-chan?"

"Hmm… No. I think that he was hit by one of the paralyzing kind of illusions, so he will recover soon enough… I think."

"That's great then… I think"

"Yeah… maybe I should call uncle Seth to be sure?"

"NO!" Gokudera exclaimed as he opened his eyes and closed them immediately afterwards because of the bright light and grabbing his head because of a huge headache. It took a few seconds before his eyes got accustomed to the brightness and before he could see the different shades of purples staring at him.

Gokudera was starting to think that purple was becoming his unlucky color.

"Kufufufu, good to see that you survived that, Goku-chan. What do you remember about what happened?" the owner of the pair of the lighter purple eyes asked.

"Don't call me that, midget!" Gokudera hissed because his head hurt too much to actually shout. What happened indeed? The only thing that he remembered was opening the door to the third basement, who the hell has more than one basement, and walking in… He remembered that it was like walking through a wall of heat, but instead of heat the teen felt nausea.

_...Did the midget just say that I was hit by an illusion?_

"Did you hit me with an illusion?!" Gokudera semi-accused Zero before winching from his own volume. Shouting wasn't a good idea if he didn't want another flare of headache. The girl broke out in a huge smile and gave the owner of the other purple eye in the unidentified green room a thumbs up.

"He will be fine, none of the more serious illusions hit him." She smiled before turning to Gokudera. "And I don't know if I was the one who hit you, you kind of walked straight into a battlefield…"

"Zero-chan was kind of distracted during the training." The other girl supplied.

"I was just worried about Lambo-kun. Reborn never told me what happened in the last battle." Zero pouted and Gokudera flinched. It wasn't a mystery why no one would tell someone like the midget, someone who could live with the only male friend of Shamal without showing permanent paranoia symptoms, what the condition was of the cow-brat.

"Who is the eyepatch-woman?" The teen asked, trying to distract the girl from the stupid-cow-matter.

"That is Chrome, my student." Zero answered. _So that is the mist guardian_, Gokudera frowned. He was actually half-convinced that the pineapple-bastard would be the mist guardian considering the fact that he was a strong illusionist. Maybe the bastard refused because he hated the mafia?

_That is good then._

The albino girl smiled at the other girl before the smile froze, she narrowed her eyes and turned to Gokudera. Suddenly the teen was reminded of the times where he saw the girl in action. The times that she broke through solid walls and went against _Reborn's_ orders.

No one went against his order, no one without dying a most painful death… and yet, this girl was still alive.

By.

Deceiving.

Reborn.

_The number one hitman in the world_.

There was a reason why she was able to live with a time-bomb.

"You know." She stated. She didn't have to finish the sentence to make Gokudera understand what she meant. The tone was a dead giveaway and the calm smile was terrifying.

The male could only nod and hope that Reborn won't kill him for telling the Neo Estraneo Primo what happened last night. But who could blame him? He was in a mad household that had human time-bombs.

…

Gokudera stared at the box with paper airplanes that was somehow retrieved with a mix of confusion and frustration as he was forced to wait outside. The midget and her uncles were in the hospital room where the stupid cow was for a while now, giving him time to think about what happened in the last few hours. Way too many things have happened already and it wasn't even two o'clock yet!

All he wanted was some hints, all he got was madness by going to the Neo Estraneo household.

"Don't think too much about it." Chris said as he walked out of the room and casually took a seat next to Gokudera.

"What?" Gokudera spat out in frustration.

"I know that look in your eyes." Chris continued, not really bothered by the tone. "Most of the newbies in our Famiglia have that look when they find out about the maddening events that happen daily."

"Maddening indeed." Gokudera muttered under his breath. He had been in the household for just a few hours and he could already understand how maddening it was there. The _intended_ explosions and human time-bombs made him more paranoid than Shamal and his flirting with women.

And to think that this happened daily to the Neo Estraneo members…

"Be happy that you never went to our main base in Italy. It is worse over there, all you know is proved otherwise there. And worse: the lighting arcobaleno likes to visit." Chris scowled at the mention of Verde. "But we got used to it… which is the worst thing now I think about it."

"You got _used _to living like _that_ and having an freaking _arcobaleno_ visiting your base?!"

"Sadly enough."

"… God, your household is messed up." Gokudera muttered after a small moment of silence.

"Finally, someone who understands!" Chris grinned. "Even Zero accepts it as it is."

"One can't say that your boss is normal either, personally I think that the midget is maddening as well… or at least some of her actions are." Gokudera grinned back.

"That is it! I like you boy, you remind me of-" Chris began, but he stopped once he saw Zero coming out of the hospital room with an almost unreadable expression and a furious glint in her eyes.

"Uncle Seth said that you wanted to get stronger, Gokudera." Zero stated softly, too soft for Gokudera to hear her tone but he could guess her emotions from her eyes alone. "I will teach you the essence of being the storm guardian."

…

**Omake: unfortunate friendships**

Most people would say how weird it was how Shamal, a freelance hitman and mafia-doctor, and Joseph, one of the core members of the Neo Estraneo, could have befriended each other. Shamal was a womanizer and Joseph was a man after all, they had nothing in common and definitely no reason to befriend each other. That is, until they found out how they knew each other.

Despite popular believe, Shamal did not become a doctor before becoming a hitman, he didn't earn his medical diploma completely legally either, nor did he actually _want_ to become a doctor. He got his diploma from slightly shady sources, though he definitely earned it with his own efforts. Hell, it definitely took _all_ of his efforts to get that damned piece of paper and he deserved it.

When Shamal was still a teenager in high school, he already was a notorious hitman known for his… creative choice of weapons. Not that he liked to use his illnesses as a weapon, but he got 666 of them and he could as well use them and with a little bit of improvising he managed to become a skilled hitman for hire. Apparently he was even skilled enough for the Varia to recruit him. Or attempt to recruit him. He declined. He had to decline. He had to, because of one of the biggest mistakes he had ever made in his entire life.

He 'accepted' the 'offer' to be an apprentice of a Sinclair.

_A Sinclair._

Luckily for Shamal, it wasn't one of the more dangerous members of the Sinclairs, especially Renatus Sinclair and _thank god_ that it wasn't Lo spaventapasseri. Even though serena Sinclair was married into the family, she could as well have been a Sinclair herself with her Spartan ways. Luckily for Shamal, it was one of the less known, but equally dangerous, members of the family. One who is known as one of the few mafia-doctors in the world and one of the best. And what more…

It was a woman.

Shamal was a sucker for beautiful women, even more so when he was younger. And that woman was definitely a beauty. The reason why he could pursue some assassins without fear now, was because he tried to _seduce_ a Sinclair before… compared to that woman, the most bloodthirsty assassins were cute and helpless.

Shamal tried to seduce a Sinclair, the woman tricked him into a debt, he was stuck with being an apprentice of the same Sinclair, his life became a living hell, end of the great story of how Shamal ended up becoming a doctor. One of the best doctors even.

Now he wasn't the only one in this kind of situation.

Apparently the woman-who-shall-never-be-named-in-front-of-Shamal had a twin brother. Apparently he had his own victi- apprentice. Apparently they decided to switch apprentices for a full month, every year.. or even more often than that... they even went as far as transferring both of the boys in the same high school. Apparently, the twin brother was a pyromaniac and maniac in general. Apparently, his curriculum was as bad as his twin sister's even though less physical fighting or training was involved.

_It was hell._

Yes, they did teach Shamal and Joseph a lot about explosives and medical skills, but they wished that their teache- _masters_ were less Spartan.

When the two apprentices met each other for the first time, they already had a kind of kinship over the fact that they were both tortured by Sinclair's despite not knowing each other. Being apprentices of Sinclair's tend to do something like that, which, ironically enough, is why the family ties between Sinclair's were so tight and the very reason why Shamal and Joseph befriended each other.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Everything is still going as planned, or ar least I think it is. Oh well, I will manage if not everything goes according to the plan. I actually thought of this omake before, but I never typed it out (until now). It is an explanation of why Shamal and Joseph were actually befriended and why Seth actually goes along with the madness that happens around him. The traumatizing-thing that he often does to the Famiglia is probably one of the side-effects of being trained by a Sinclair. The only thing that Jospeh's teacher didn't train him in was physical training because he was... weaker than the average Sinclair, but not less dangerous. (And just for the records, the Sinclair twins in this omake are cousins of Renatus Sinclair)**

**I initially planned to let Zero see the lightning battle, ****GreenDrkness, but it simply couldn't work out :(. At least she will attend all the other matches.**

**Well, Reaper Senpai, I always thought that having the abilities to use illusions will burden the users in a mental way. Sometimes, having imagination only isn't enough so they use memories and memories aren't always happy. Using trauma's like Zero did is even worse but more powerful because the fear is still in her mind. Personally I think that Zero isn't entirely over her trauma's yet, which is the reason that she could use it to affect Mukuro. And for the card games... Zero took time to learn card games, so the only card games she isn't _too_ good at (for now) is UNO (one of the newer games) though even in that game she could end up being in the top twenty in an international UNO-contest.**

**That is right, L's Cappuccino ;).**

**Thank you for your support guys, and just a small question... if you had to choose, who is the better uncle? Chris or Seth? Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 37: odd lessons

All I could do was staring at the living, but also lifeless face of the small kid in the hospital bed. He was too young to deserve this kind of fate. Too young to be beaten up like this. What did Lambo do to deserve this? Being born in a mafia Famiglia? Being part of Tsuna's family?

"It will take a little time, but he will be fine, Zero-sama." Seth nodded. I nodded back, somehow this news did not calm me down like I expected that it would. The breath that was stuck in my throat refused to leave and the tears that threatened to appear did not want to go away despite the good news…

_Good news?_

What's the 'good' part of this news? Nothing is good about this situation! Kids and teenagers are fighting professional assassins in the middle of the night, innocents get involved in mafia-matters, children that are supposed to live a normal life are pulled into this chaos! _Nothing_ is good.

There was nothing 'good' about this situation, but what could I do? I couldn't directly interfere with the battles since that would only lead to Tsuna's disqualifications. I couldn't directly confront the Varia. I couldn't do _anything_ to change this situation apart from tutoring Mukuro. I couldn't do anything but look at the face of one of the victims of a whim of the Vongola Nono and try to stay calm.

_Damn, I feel so useless._

And it felt bad. Maddening even. I looked at my bag that was left next to my seat and shook my head. I couldn't do a lot, I couldn't even disable the gola mosca because I simply didn't understand pictures of the blueprints that Spanner sent me this morning!

_When was the last time that I felt this useless?_

I looked down at hands that were grasping the hem of my skirt at the thought of being unable to help anyone. No, worse than that. Unable to actually help anyone while I could only watch like a helpless spectator.

_I couldn't do a thing for Lambo_, I frowned. Nothing. I watched the drops from my eyes fall on my skirt, darkening the white material and displaying my feelings in a mocking way. I felt horrible, helpless, too helpless to allow myself walk around aimlessly to think more clearly. What could I do? _Nothing_.

"…Zero-sama." Seth began hesitantly. "There is… something you can do." My head shot up at those words and I stared at the brunet, hoping that there was something I could do. Whether it was helping Lambo or the others_, something_ that I could do would be enough.

"Tell me." I demanded as the helplessness slowly turned into something akin to frustration and determination. If there was anything that I could do, then I would do it.

"That kid, Shamal's protégé, he wants to get stronger." Seth nodded. I looked at the door that led to the corridor where we left the said teen. Gokudera Hayato, the storm guardian, Trident Shamal's apprentice, Smoking bomb.

"He doesn't need to get _stronger_, does he?"

"No."

"I know what to do then." I nodded before wiping some stray tears away, retrieving my bag and taking a deep breath. I needed to calm down, I couldn't snap now, I simply couldn't. This, _this_ was something that I could do. This was all I ever needed to do. This was one of the things that I used to do and I'll just have to do it again.

I released the breath that I had been holding and carefully constructed my poker face before opening the door.

Time to tutor the guardian of the sky.

"Uncle Seth said that you wanted to get stronger, Gokudera." I stated softly. "I will teach you the essence of being the storm guardian."

…

"Tell me, Goku-chan. What is your role as the storm guardian?" I asked the teen.

"Continuously at the heart of the attack, the furious storm that never rests, right?" Gokudera answered. "And stop calling me that, midget!"

"No." I smiled softly to both responses, it was nostalgic to get this kind of answer. Mukuro never knew of dying will flames when I taught him and the same applied to Chrome, so it was a lifetime ago since I've heard a specific answer like this one. "The answer you gave me was a textbook answer. An mafia textbook maybe, but a textbook nevertheless. Once you are left in the harsh world outside, having only textbook answers won't be able to help you, Goku-chan."

"What is the answer then?" Gokudera scowled.

"Kufufufu, that is what I will be asking you after this session. We don't have a lot of time, but one hour should be more than enough." I nodded.

"An hour? In this place?!" Gokudera exclaimed incredulously once I said that.

"What is wrong with this place?"

"Look around you. We. Are. Surrounded."

"Hmm, but they are just children…"

"That is my point." Gokudera scowled. "Why are we training in the part of the hospital with the most children?!"

"I don't see the problem." I nodded. "The lesson that I'm giving you is not a 'training', but a _lesson_. Which means no bombs, no violence and no cussing in front of these children."

The silver haired teen stared at me before the gears in his head began to turn. I could almost see the imaginary gears turn harder when yet another child ran past us.

Nanimori hospital had a daycare center for the children of visiting parents or doctors that were single parents. In here, children between three and nine could play safely and partake in many activities like origami without bothering their parents.

Some of the cheerful children showed me their paper creations while Gokudera was scaring the other, major, part of the children away and yet attracting admiration of some of the young children with his 'cool' looks. He was still thinking, frozen in his spot and getting more and more annoyed with the loudness of the children.

Then Gokudera was hit by one of the unfortunately bad folded paper airplanes and he snapped.

"Which fu- idiot threw this!" He shouted and it was silent. Many eyes were aimed at the silver haired teen and a faint blush crept on his face when he realized that he was shouting at children. He may shout a lot to Lambo, but that kid was part of the mafia. These children were civilians. Civilians were weak, not used to his violent nature-

"AWESOME!"

"CAN YOU DO IT AGAIN?"

"YOU'RE SCAWIER THAN MUMMY!"

Gokudera stared at the small crowd of fearless children that surrounded him with a mix of surprise, confusion and pure horror. He looked at me as if to tell me to do something about this and I smiled at the familiar scene.

_How nostalgic._

"What are you smiling at, midget?" he scowled exasperated as he tried to avoid getting buried by children.

"Listen well, Goku-chan. This is what happens if you are continuously at the heart of the attack, o almighty furious storm that never rests." I smiled innocently. Gokudera looked positively horrified at that.

"What the f-"

"No cussing in front of these children, Goku-chan." I hushed. "If you don't keep your cool, everything will just go worse."

"Then what am I supposed to do?!"

"Keep calm and look around." I smiled. Gokudera scowled at me before fervently turning his head around and trying to find something that could help him out of his situation. His eyes fell on the box that he brought along.

It was a mystery to me what Gokudera was planning to do with a box full of paper planes, but they could be useful right now.

Gokudera looked at his box with a mix of confusion and annoyance for a small five seconds, but understood what he had to do. The teen made his way through the crowd of very persistent children and picked one of the many, perfectly folded, airplanes from the box.

Then he threw it in the air.

The children that were once trying to get Gokudera's attention stared at the perfect arc that the plane made in awe. Then they returned their attention to the silver haired teen with eyes full of expectations. Gokudera looked at his box before looking at the children and upturning the box, letting every single paper plane fall to the floor.

And he ran.

I chuckled and shook my head before swiping one of the paper planes and following Gokudera out of the daycare center. His behavior just now was exactly like G's in the orphanage that I threw him in for his lesson… maybe Gokudera's reaction was less extreme because he wasn't locked up with them as long as G though. G liked children… from a distance. Preferably a long distance.

But even though Gokudera and G were a lot alike, I was convinced that Gokudera would be able to set aside his hate for children for Tsuna's sake while G couldn't do the same thing for Giotto. Gokudera didn't come to my house for advice for his own sake, but for Tsuna's sake after all. G simply tried to run away in every single opportunity he got.

"Hmm, it seems that you know your role as the storm guardian already, Goku-chan." I smiled.

…

"So that was your lesson." I stated innocently when I caught up to him in the backyard of the hospital. "Have you learned something new?"

"The storm is not continuously at the heart of the attack." Gokudera grumbled.

"No, essentially that is the role of _a_ storm guardian. I meant something else, kufufu."

"What was I supposed to learn then, midget?!"

"You know it by heart already but, I will give you a hint." I chuckled before I threw the paper plane in the air. "Describe what is happening to the paper plane."

"The paper airplane is using a balanced combination of aerodynamics and the forces of lift and thrust to defy gravity and fly to the sky." Gokudera muttered.

"Well… that is true, but I was asking for a description… not a scientific explanation." I sweatdropped.

"What do you see then, midget?" Gokudera huffed.

"I see a paper airplane that is flying in the air." I stated and grinned when I saw the incredulous expression on Gokudera's face. "You see, Goku-chan, sometimes the answer is right in front of you. That is my second lesson to you: look farther than your eyes can reach, but do not forget to look back at all that is right in front of you."

"…Are you saying that my answers were always right in front of me?"

"Indeed, and considering that fact… What is _your_ role as the storm guardian?" I asked again. Gokudera's eyes widened when he realized what actually I asked from him. Not the role of _a_ storm guardian, but _his_ role as a guardian.

"To defend- no…To _support_ the sky."

"Indeed. The guardians support the sky that holds the elements safe and keep them in balance." I nodded. "You knew that, though you tend to think too much, Goku-chan. Sometimes you just have to let your instincts decide your actions, like running away from the daycare center… which is a tip from me, by the way. Trust your instincts and running away is not for cowards only. Running away is for the survivors as well."

"Shut up midget, you didn't have to throw me in that mess to teach me that." Gokudera scowled.

"What can I say? You needed to experience what would happen if you were to follow everything that was written in the textbooks." I shrugged. "And the first storm of the Vongola had a similar kind of experience, just for a longer period than you."

"That… sounds horrible."

"Hmm… for him it was, but it simply took him longer to realize what question he was asked. That is the only reason why he was locked up for a longer time and he hated every second of it." I agreed, I would never forget the temper of the magenta haired man when he finally got out of the orphanage. I stared at the sky and smiled of the nostalgia of old memories.

"…So, what now, Midget?" Gokudera asked after a small moment of silence.

"Hmm, you still trust me to teach or train you properly after this?" I asked amused. Not even Lampo trusted me to teach him properly for a full month after his first session, though his lesson involved more dodging and wild animals than G's lesson. "Plus, I have my own student to train."

"Just say what the next thing that I can learn is and you can go away."

"Kufufufu, don't worry about my student. Today's schedule consisted of a spar with me and a spar with the band of misfits." I chuckled. This training would occupy most of Muku-chan's time for today, which meant that I had time to help Gokudera for now. "And I've put casted an illusion to see how much time it takes to break out of it."

"…You aren't going to do that to me too, are you?"

"Hmm, actually… it would help you detecting and evading things that you overlook if I did throw illusions at you." I mused out loud. "So, why not?"

"Damn it."

…

"He is late." Tsuna muttered to himself as the clock almost indicated that it was midnight. "…But maybe it's better if Gokudera-kun won't fight-"

**BOOOOOM**

"Sorry for the wait, Juudaime." Gokudera stated when Tsuna looked away from the now destroyed clock.

"Kufufufu, excuse us for our tardiness. It took a little while before I understood Goku-chan's explanation." Zero smiled while she tried to avoid eye-contact with the Varia.

"Shut up, midget! It was your fault to begin with!" Gokudera shouted at the girl next to him. Zero simply smiled and shrugged.

"I can't help that I didn't understand the blueprints."

"You are the leader of _inventing madmen_! How can't you read blueprints?!"

Tsuna gaped at the… confusing argument in front of him and frowned in confusion. Why did they appear together and what were they talking about?

…_And is it possible to improve a relationship while worsening it at the very same time?_

"Ciaossu, Zero. I assume that you gave Gokudera a crash course?" Reborn asked. Zero looked at her brother in a former life and nodded.

"Don't worry about the training of the mist guardian or the storm guardian, everything went smoothly." She smiled while walking to the small group of friends with Gokudera.

"If smoothly means being hit by several illusions that ascend time and space..." Gokudera grumbled under his breath.

"It was your suggestion though." Zero shrugged. "And it gave you more time to train, right?"

"Tch, it gave me headaches."

"I see that my student went to your house for advice then?" Shamal asked after appearing out of nowhere.

"He actually asked advice from uncle Seth, but he directed Goku-chan to me." Zero nodded. "But I knew that I didn't have to teach him new skills, so I gave him a lesson to understand his role as a guardian and put several illusions in his head. Right now, he has at least a week of training in his mind even though only a few hours had passed by."

"Thou art able to maketh time and space ascending illusions?" Basil frowned. Wasn't the girl a bit too young to be able to do something like that?

"It took a lot of practice, but yes." Zero smiled before looking at the floor and sighing in defeat. "I can't use it for paperwork though, apparently my mind refuses to acknowledge that I have paperwork to do. So when I try to take my paperwork in a time-less illusion… it gets burned to bits."

"VOI, listen already, fish! Join the Va-"

"What is your name?" Zero asked Basil in an attempt to ignore the shouts coming from the Varia.

"I am Basil." The teen nodded warily. He faintly recognized the albino girl, but he got the feeling that he didn't want to know from where or when he recognized her. The way that the Varia was trying to get her attention and the way that the girl was trying to avoid them was ominous as well.

"Nice to meet you, Basil-san. I am Es-"

"I don't get it, but let's do what we always do before a match!" Ryohei shouted in the background.

"o- Zero" Zero finished before looking at the conversation others in amusement. "They are a wonderful Famiglia, aren't they?"

"That they are." Basil agreed.

"Come on, Zero! EXTREMELY join the huddle!"

"Kufufufu, sure."

…

"What did you do to make him like that, Zero-chan?" Yamamoto asked curiously when the match began. Gokudera seemed more suspecting than ever before.

"I threw illusions at him to train his detecting-skills and evasion-skills?" Zero admitted sheepishly. "I think that I made Goku-chan a bit paranoid of everything though…"

"Haha, that sounds fun though." Yamamoto laughed.

"_A bit_ paranoid of everything?" Tsuna sweatdropped when Gokudera scowled after Belphegor brushed his shoulder. The silver haired teen brushed over the same shoulder immediately after that action and frowned.

"Maybe a bit too much." Zero sweatdropped.

"Yeah…" Tsuna agreed when Gokudera ran to one of the classrooms instead of attacking his opponent. Tsuna frowned in confusion when Gokudera found some scissors and cut the air around his shoulder. "By the way, Zero, why were you late-" Tsuna began, but stopped mid-sentence once he saw the girl next to him.

Zero was there, but at the same time she wasn't. Sure, Tsuna could see the albino girl standing next to him, but something in the back of his head informed him that she wasn't there at all.

_An illusion_, Tsuna realized. _But why and since when?_

"Pay attention, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn ordered and Tsuna returned his attention to the screens that showed Gokudera's fight. Gokudera just threw dynamites that somehow could change directions at his opponent and frowned at small outburst that followed when Belphegor saw his own blood.

_Zero made him _too_ paranoid_, Tsuna sweatdropped when Gokudera didn't wait for another opportunity and ran forwards to snatch the ring from Belphegor's neck before running back as fast as he could.

"Hmm, I think that throwing illusions at him made Goku-chan a bit faster and more evasive as well." Zero muttered.

"Hiiie?!" Tsuna shrieked. "Zero? Since when are you back? What were you doing anyways?"

"So you noticed? Maybe your hyper intuition is developing?" Zero wondered out loud before shaking her head and looking at Gokudera, who tried to put the halves of the ring together while running away and dodging several knives coming from his rampaging opponent at the same time. "And well… I was doing something for my Famiglia."

"What were you doing, Zero?" Reborn asked. Zero made sure that the Varia wasn't paying attention to her before picking her phone from her bag and showing the hitman and Tsuna a picture. Tsuna's eyes widened when he recognized the robot in the blueprint that was showed on the small screen.

"Attempting to weaken some parts of a stolen good."

…

**Omake: the archives**

Spanner looked at the organized shelves of the basement with a mix of horror and reluctance. He knew that finding the blueprints that Nemo asked for was important, the girl made sure to relay that… but that didn't change the fact that the Neo Estraneo had _a lot_ of blueprints.

And even that would be an underestimation of how many blueprints existed in the Famiglia.

They were all stowed away in the maze of bookshelves that Nemo liked to call 'the archives'. All the blueprints of every single invention was put in this huge maze and Spanner had to look for the blueprints if _one_ invention specifically.

It would take ages to find those blueprints without knowing the structure of this maze and only five people knew how to navigate in here…

The Neo Estraneo Primo.

Chris.

Joseph.

Koenig.

And lastly, Verde.

The first three persons were in Japan, or in other words: unable to help. The fourth guy was… Honestly, Spanner didn't know where he was. Koenig disappeared more often than not to find inspiration for his next invention, only to come back starved and with another brilliant, ahem destructive, idea. And the last one…

No, Spanner did _not_ want to ask Verde to help him.

As much as Nemo needed the blueprints, he knew that she wouldn't appreciate the extra paperwork that will accompany Verde's help… So Spanner was stuck with his job.

"I hope that I won't get lost." Spanner sighed as he decided to take his first step in the maze.

At a later date he would remember this choice as one of his most regretful decisions in his entire life, for he only managed to get out when he encountered Koenig by chance... a few days after entering the archives. Spanner was lucky that he took a mini mosca, that carried food and drinks around, with him or he would have starved.

After this incident, Spanner made sure to hang a warning board in front of the archives to warn unsuspecting members of the family to enter the maze _at own risk._

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**The storm battle changed a lot because Zero and the Neo Estraneo household made Gokudera a bit too paranoid, but whether Gokudera will win or lose is still unknown to me. Either way, it won't affect next chapter too much (even though the chance that Gokudera wins is higher than in canon because he used all the opportunities that he got and ran before Bel even got the chance to go on a blood-frenzy, it all depends on if he is able to put the halves in one piece in time).**

**Thanks for the tip ddmahan922 ;).**

**In a way, that is true… but a Sinclair is a Sinclair, GreenDrkness.**

**Zero indeed tutored Viper for a little while, Reaper Senpai, but you'll find out what the entire situation is in one of the future Sinclair-omakes kufufu. Ps. I'm flattered that you like this fic :D.**

**Kufufufu, being trained by a Sinclair tend to do something like that, Sills.**

**But you had to choose one, Viviene001 :p.**

**To TheParadoxicalOxymoron: if you meant that Zero was missing in the future, that was ten years in the future minus three months in chapter 11/9 (Now it's around nine and a half years minus three months in the future though), the omake with Lambo was eight years in the future. And I have a lot planned in the future arc kufufufu…**

**Whether Gokudera will win or lose is still unknown, even to me… but that doesn't change too much of the plot of next chapter! Preview:**

"Damn it. I messed up."

**Note that Zero said '_Attempting_ to weaken some parts of a stolen good'. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter 38: balance

I knew by experience how hard it was to run and evade attacks at the same time, though it almost came naturally to me now. Mostly because of Alaude… and this skill was polished up by Serena Sinclair.

Anyways, I knew how much difficulties Gokudera was having by running, attempting to put two halves of a ring together while dodging waves of knives. I knew that Bel, compared to Gokudera, had a lot more of experience and that he would definitely had won the battle if it wasn't for the hit and run tactic.

The good old hit and run tactic. Gokudera criticized it when I told him about this, but in the end he relented… maybe because of the illusions that I threw at him.

But this tactic could be more dangerous than direct fighting because you had to turn your back to your opponent… which is exactly why I knew that I couldn't ask Gokudera to buy me some time to weaken the blast of the gola mosca.

Gokudera ran through the familiar halls of Nanimori middle and used the environment to his advantage. Doors, shortcuts, classrooms all the advantages he needed to get rid of Belphegor for a few moments. One of the few reasons why the silver haired teen could outrun Bel.

Gokudera jumped through one of the windows of a classroom, hissed at the glass cuts he got and ran through the corridor that I recognized as the one that led to this place. I sighed in relief when Gokudera all but ran out of the halls and skidded to a halt in front of the barricade that separated us from the battlefield with no Bel to be seen.

"I won, Juudaime." He panted as he finally put the halves of the rings together.

"The ring is obtained by Gokudera Hayato." The Cervello announced. "Therefore, he is the winner of tonight's match."

"That was a close call, Goku-chan." I smiled. I earned a semi-glare with that.

"Tch, I guess that the training proved to be useful, midget."

"The running or the illusions?"

"…Both."

"That is great then. You blew them away, Goku-chan." I smiled proudly before frowning and looking at the gola mosca. "Now we can only hope that the old blueprints are the same as the newer ones." I never encountered technology like this in any of my former life's and I wasn't exactly great at reading blueprints. With Gokudera's help I could somehow understand the instructions of the control panel, but that was all I could understand.

I didn't have to wait too long for the results as Bel ran from the hall as well and the gola mosca shot at the teen. The blast was significantly weaker and smaller, but at the same time more explosive.

"Damn it. I messed up." I breathed when I saw the injured body of Bel on the floor.

"No, you didn't." Gokudera scowled. "The settings in the stolen designs probably made the firearms more stable. With changing some settings in the mainframe that that controlled the explosive nature of the ammunition, the explositivity of the blast will go up significantly."

"…Sure." I muttered. That didn't change the fact that I possibly made the gola mosca more dangerous though.

"What a laughable ending." Squalo smirked. "The fake prince lost because his opponent is good at _running away_."

"Aren't you worried that you might lose the battles?" Gokudera hissed.

"We, lose?" Mammon huffed. "Your holder of the cloud ring hasn't even showed up even once. If they won't show up before their match, we'll win by default."

"…Says the side with a robot as a guardian." I muttered. Was that even allowed? It was not like there was a human inside of the robot…right?

Now I was thinking about it, Spanner once said that the older designs used dying will flames as fuel… But only in the later designs of the gola mosca it was possible to have a person to control the robot from inside and provide their flames, not in the designs that were stolen.

_If_ there was a human inside this gola mosca, it must be used as an energy source only-

_No way, right?_

"I will announce the next math." One of the women of the Cervello announced, disrupting my thought process in result. "Tomorrow's battle will be the battle between the guardians of the rain."

"I've been waiting for this moment." Squalo smirked.

"Me as well." Yamamoto declared.

"…Men, they are all fighting maniacs." I sighed, remembering the violent natures of most of the men that I knew. Even Asari turned out to be a fighting maniac after knowing him for a little while. And I hoped that the Japanese would be sane unlike the other fighting maniacs. He wasn't as bad as Alaude though… and Hibari. _Don't forget Hibari_.

"What do you think that you are doing in my school?" Hibari asked from somewhere in the distance. I should have known it, talk about the devil and he will appear. And then I noticed something very obvious…

The destruction made by tonight's battle.

"I will take my leave first." I decided. I didn't want to get caught up with a mess that involved skylarks and the destruction of their territory, one time was more than enough… And back then I was still lucky that I wasn't the one on the receiving end of Alaude's anger. I wouldn't be so lucky this time if I staid.

"Already?" Tsuna asked.

"I have to review the blueprints and…" I looked at the hallway where I heard Hibari's voice from before looking at the Varia and back at Tsuna. "I don't want to get caught. I will see you later, Tsuna."

"Wait, Zero." Reborn ordered. I did stop, but kept looking in the directions of possible threats. Namely: Hibari and the Varia. "Come to Takesushi in the evening, you can help."

"Sure, Reborn." I nodded. There was a fifty percent chance that the mist battle is next anyways, so Mukuro had to rest to avoid too much strain.

I made myself invisible and ran away. I did _not_ want to get caught by Hibari or the Varia and I needed to ask Spanner if there was supposed to be a human body as energy source in the original designs of the gola mosca.

…

"…It can't be true." I muttered on my way to Takesushi. "It can't be true that there is a human in the gola mosca." And yet, Spanner said that it was the undeniable truth. The older designs were rejected because they drained the flames of the person who was inside of the robot, slowly weakening and even killing them in the process.

And the Varia stole those designs.

"Could it be any worse?!" I shouted in frustration.

"What could be worse, Estraneo-chan?" Someone behind me asked. I tensed up in surprise before turning around relaxing when I saw that it was Yamamoto's father that was behind me, not the Varia or Hibari.

"Nothing."

"You can tell me, Estraneo-chan, this old man here won't judge." The sushi chef laughed and I blinked a few times in surprise. This man was more like Asari than I initially thought. He had the same laugh, the same feeling of carefreeness and the same well-hidden killing intend.

Just like Yamamoto, just like_ Asari._

"…Well, imagine that a robot existed that used… life-force as fuel and the only ones that could disable the robot and safe the person inside are on the other side of the world." I began hesitantly.

"Haha, that sounds like a serious problem." Yamamoto senior laughed.

"Indeed and to make things worse, you are the only one who has connection to those people but you can't understand how to stop the robot because you and your friends have no idea how to decipher the blueprints."

"If that would happen, I would think of what I _can_ do, not what I _can't_ do." Yamamoto senior mused. "Imagine that you have the uncanny ability to take everything apart and put everything back in one piece, then you can save the person yourself."

"…" I froze in my tracks and stared incredulously at the man who somehow gave me the answers that I needed without realizing it himself. Taking things apart and putting them back together was part of the job description of a metal craftsman. My, currently unofficial, profession. More often than not, we had to take weapons apart to enhance them after all…

"Estraneo-chan?"

"…Just call me Zero." I smiled. "And thank you, Yamamoto-san."

"Call me Tsuyoshi then, Zero-chan." Yamamoto senior laughed.

"Kufufu, sure Tsuyoshi-san."

…

"I hope that you didn't mind helping this old man out, Zero-chan." Tsuyoshi smiled at me as we walked through the storage room of the dojo behind the sushi restaurant..

"Kufufu, of course I don't mind, Tsuyoshi-san." I chuckled. "But what are we looking for?"

"A heirloom." Tsuyoshi answered.

"…A heirloom?" I frowned, that sounded suspicious. If the Yamamoto's were related to Asari Ugetsu… "…Could it be a flute or a bamboo sword?" I wondered out loud.

"Exactly." Tsuyoshi grinned with a glint of interest in his eyes. "Tell me, girl. What do you know of Asari Ugetsu and the Shiguren Shouen Ryuu?"

"…T-truthfully?" I asked hesitantly. I looked at the man that looked genuinely interested and took a small step back. If he really was Asari's descendant, then I had to be careful around the things that he takes interest in. Asari tended to be a bit too… _obsessed_ so now and then.

"Yes." Yamamoto senior nodded seriously with a glint of interest in his eyes and I paled. I was damned.

"A lot." I whispered.

…

"The Shiguren Shouen style is completely flawless, the strongest, Invincible!" Yamamoto's dad shouted and Tsuna winced slightly at the tone that the man used. The brunet didn't expect the man to be so fanatic about his swordsmanship, especially since the man was very calm in the times that Tsuna saw him. Now he was simply scary and seeing how Gokudera was slightly paler than usual, he agreed with that opinion.

"So this is where the baseball freak got his natural killer genes from…" Gokudera muttered while the man continued his speech.

"And the style has survived for ages already, right Zero-chan?"

"…Zero?" Tsuna frowned. He took a step to his left to see past the man and took a step when he saw the albino girl standing behind the elder Yamamoto.

"Hmm, that is right." Zero began hesitantly. "The first rain of the Vongola used the very same style and there was no style that could beat the Shiguren shouen style…"

"That is what I was talking about, girl. Zero-chan knows her history."

"Kufufu… thank you Tsuyoshi-san." Zero smiled hesitantly before looking at Tsuna, Reborn, Gokudera and Yamamoto and mouthing 'help me'.

…

"Your father is scary, Yama-kun." I sighed when we were on our way to Nanimori middle.

"Haha, he just likes his sword style." Yamamoto laughed.

"Maybe a bit too much." Tsuna muttered.

"That is not liking, idiot." Gokudera agreed. "That was a fanatic who was borderline obsessed… hell no, he _is_ obsessed, take that from me."

"Maybe you can learn from Yamamoto-senior, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn smirked.

"No." Tsuna shuddered in horror. "He is scary."

"Nah, dad simply _loves_ his sword style." Yamamoto dismissed that comment.

"Definitely related." I muttered under my breath. The Yamamoto's were definitely related to Asari, no doubt possible. They were equally scary and obsessed at times. "So much for washing worries away… at least I'm sure that you will be able to wash your opponent away easily."

"Haha, I'm not that good yet, Zero-chan." Yamamoto laughed sheepishly. "How did you know about the Shigure Shouen Ryuu, by the way?"

"…It was written in the diary of his tutor." I lied. The Shiguren Shouen style was indeed described in my diary, but I simply had firsthand experience of the fighting style. I even knew about the style before I became the tutor of the Vongola's.

"Do you mean 'A's' diary?" Reborn asked.

"Indeed." I nodded before stopping in my tracks and paling. I could faintly smell something that I was too familiar with.

"Is something wrong, Zero?" Reborn asked. I looked at my babyfied brother and shook my head slowly.

"No, it was just my imagination." I whispered. Or at least, I hoped that it was my imagination.

"You don't need to come you know." Reborn frowned. "You look ill."

"Kufufufu, you know that I can't get ill, Reborn." I chuckled weakly. "I want to see the battle and I need to disable the gola mosca."

"Are you sure?" Reborn insisted.

"Yes." I nodded. I needed to get the person out of the gola mosca before it was too late.

"Alright, but one sign of being ill and I will forbid you from doing _anything_ that is straining." Reborn stated. "Paperwork included."

…

_It was a bad, _bad_ idea to allow Zero to see the match_, Reborn scowled when he saw his younger sister tremble at the sight of all the water on the huge screen. Renata always hated water, she feared it even.

It was when the rain guardians began using the water to their advantage when Reborn could feel it. Zero's flames that she used to keep hidden in every single moment, was leaking from her body as she started to shake even more violently.

"Zero?" Reborn tried as he ran to his younger sister, but the girl didn't respond. She kept on staring at the screen with unfocused eyes and her hands were twitching violently. Her mist flame was starting to become a heavy presence that almost made Reborn drown on land and-

…_Drown?_

"Zero!" Reborn tried again, but she didn't react at all. Reborn looked around to try and find something to calm the albino girl down. For now, only he could feel the pressure because he was standing right next to the girl but he knew that it would get out of hand soon.

But everyone was paying attention to the screen, no one noticed the fragile state that the girl was in. If no one could snap Zero out of it, she will drown because of her own illusions!

"Wake up, Zero!"

"What is wrong with Zero?" Tsuna whispered when he noticed that Reborn was trying to shake the girl awake.

"Just in time, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn stated. "Do something."

"What are you talking about, Reborn? What is wrong with Zero?"

"Stop asking questions! She is drowning!"

…

_Flashback _

"I can't believe that you inherited everything."

"This bitch stole everything from us, yes that must be it!"

"There is no way that grandfather loved the little witch!"

"We earned the money, it is rightfully ours."

"But it isn't… not yet."

"Are you thinking what I am thinking?"

_No._

"So you are thinking about that as well?"

_Please._

"No." I whispered.

"What? Is the little monster talking back.

"No." I said softly as my relatives came closer. "Please!"

"Shut up."

It hurt when my body hit the water and my eyes widened when I realized what my family just did. They threw me in the lake, the clear blue lake in the forest that no one but I used to know about. They threw me away to get the money that grandfather left for me.

I tried to move, but my clothes were too heavy to actually work along and pulled me down instead.

I tried to breath, but no air came in my lungs that burned. Nothing but water. Nothing but water.

I tried to keep calm, but I felt nothing. Nothing. The soft blueish light that shone from the wide surface above stared mockingly at me and I cried, could you cry underwater? Maybe it was impossible but the beauty of the light made it possible for me.

Because it consoled me, _reassured_ me.

Yes, I would never see Daemon Spade again, who was the only friend that I ever had apart from my grandfather. I would never speak to Carola Spade again who became my mother in the short time after grandfather died.

But I would be able to see grandfather again.

But the thought, as beautiful as it may be, made me yearn for the impossible. I didn't want to meet my grandfather now. I wanted to breath despite the water that surrounded me. I wanted to move even though my clothes restricted me.

_I want to live. _

"Wake up."

…

"Wake up, Zero." Someone whispered. I opened my eyes and my breath hitched when I saw the orange tinted eyes through the blurriness of my tears. Giotto?

"Gio- no, Tsuna?" I whispered back when I realized in which century I was. "What happened?"

"You were drowning." Reborn answered in a hushed tone. I paled a bit at that and looked around. I knew what happened around me when I lost all control of my flames. But the fight was still ongoing, everyone was still watching the battle. No one noticed me losing my cool, though Mammon kept giving us glances. The illusionist probably noticed something, which was expected from a skilled illusionist. Tsuna was holding my hand. Yamamoto was using Shigure-

"…Tsuna, are you holding my hand?" I asked hesitantly.

"Hiiiie!" Tsuna shrieked softly and his eyes turned back to their normal color. Somewhere in the back of my head I was glad that the orange color was gone because it reminded me of Giotto, but at the same time I wished that I could stare a little longer at the sunset orange color because of the very same reason. "D-don't misunderstand, Z-Zero! Hiiie, l-let me explain, R-Reborn!"

"Shut up, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn grumbled. "You managed to snap Zero out of it, but don't think that I will forgive something like this the next time you even _think_ of doing something like this. Now, focus on the battle."

I chuckled and calmed down once I felt the gentle warmth surged through my body from Tsuna's hand. _Sky flames_, I realized. They kept my feelings in balance for now.

"Thank you." I muttered as I held Tsuna's hand a little tighter. The teen did not seem to mind.

"Just keep holding my hand until the fight is over." Tsuna whispered.

"I will." I smiled as I relished the warmth that kept me safe from harm the heavy feeling of drowning. Water has always been one of my weaknesses and I could never truly get over the memories.

I looked at the hand that was holding mine, at the warmth that it provided, to the safety that it promised and I smiled. It has been a long while since I could see anything that involved water with a clear mind like this.

That didn't change the fact that I visibly winced whenever one of the swords made waves or even ripples in the water.

Yes, I knew that watching for much longer wasn't good for me, but right now I was just glad that I was able to see this battle. To see how much the sword style that Asari used had improved over the years.

I sweatdropped when I remembered a certain conversation that I had with Asari before I even knew that he joined the vigilante group. He said something like: _'Wouldn't it be funny if my successor has to undergo change to be able to undergo succession, Knight-kun? If it goes on like that, the style will have millions of variations and never die!' _if I remembered it right.

_Funny indeed, but it worked out somehow_, I nodded. _Yamamoto will be fine_. I gave one last glance at the screen before turning to Tsuna and Reborn.

"Maybe it's better for me if I left now." I smiled weakly.

"It is." Reborn agreed. "And remember: No paperwork."

"…Kufufufu sure, brother." I chuckled softly.

"I will text you about the results of this battle." Tsuna promised with a small smile.

"Thank you." I smiled back before making sure that I couldn't see the screen, taking another deep breath and letting go of Tsuna's hand. For a small moment I could feel the slight panic that remained in my body, but because I made sure that I couldn't see the water I was fine.

"I hate water." I whispered when I left the gates of the school.

"I know. Are you alright now, Nata?"

"Of course I am Vi-chan don't worry about m- … _what?_" I frowned before turning around and staring at the hooded baby that was floating behind me.

…_Hooded?_

"Vi-chan?"

…

**Omake: preference**

It was Tsuna that helped Zero calm down for now, but it was Reborn who was the first to realize that the action that Tsuna took was going to make the situation even worse.

For Reborn, that is.

And Reborn knew that he had to do something before it was too late. He needed to get Zero out of here before it was too late, but Tsuna's hand was the only thing that kept Zero calm and Reborn wouldn't allow Tsuna to leave. Leaving subordinates behind when they are struggling is a bad trait for a boss and won't help this situation at all.

Could Reborn cut of his stupid student's hand and see if that would work?

…No, Tsuna needed that hand to sign his future paperwork and dying will flames did not come from dead bodies. The thought was very tempting though, especially after seeing the slightly flushed face of his student. Tsuna was probably not even aware of his stupid expression.

There was always a possibility that Tsuna looked like this because he was trying to bond with Zero, as she is a mist and Tsuna 'missed' a mist for all he knew. But Reborn knew better. He knew better because he knew that Renata already had a sky… but he didn't know who.

One thing was sure though: by the time that Reborn knew that Zero already had a sky, the sky was most likely already dead and Zero was the loyal mist-type… Which meant that she would never bond with another sky again.

He knew better for a whole different reason as well, but Reborn didn't want to dwell too long on that thought. He was sure that he would kill his Dame-student if he did so since that was the source of this very problem.

Many frustrating thoughts rushed through Reborn's mind, some more disturbing than others, but it all stopped when one single thought appeared and refused to leave Reborn alone.

_Rather Tsuna than Mukuro._

And somehow, Reborn couldn't help but agree with that thought… it didn't change the fact that Reborn wanted to cut his student's hand off though.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I've good news and bad news. First the good news: the mist battle is next. The bad news… I have exams next week, which means that I probably shouldn't update soon… sorry? Anyways, I had more fun by writing the omake than I probably should have. Reborn is shipping unconciously kufufufu. Does anyone have an idea of who Zero's sky was? I will probably leave a hint in the omake of next chapter of Zero's sky ;D.**

**Well… Xanxus already saw Zero this chapter, but Zero will meet only meet Xanxus in the next chapter, ddmahan922. For some reason I kept on procrastinating their meeting.**

**Next chapter, Reaper Senpai. Next chapter will have the battle (or at least a part of it) and maybe even a Sinclair omake ;).**

**There is indeed a scene where THEY appear, Viviene001.**

**Probably both, Akayuki Novak. You could say that Zero vaguely realized that it was a maze, but she forgot to tell because she had a lot on her mind.**

**Spanner probably had a lot of food to choose from, mysterious guest :).**

**I know, Alice aquabld, but some parts contain clues about –spoilers- that I wanted to put in.**

**That was one of the reasons why I made Zero throw illusions at Gokudera, Elena N. Believe me, no one is careless after being subjected by many, **_**many**_** illusions. And I'm glad that you like the Daily life omakes, I had a lot of fun writing them :D.**

**Partially as an apology for probably not updating soon and because of a certain event that I really love:**

**Omake 2: hide and seek **

"What am I even doing here." I pouted. Reborn _asked_ me to play Halloween style hide and seek, even though I was really, _really_ busy. But one does not simply decline Reborn's fun.

Though apparently playing Halloween hide and seek meant sitting in Nanimori middle school in the middle of the night while waiting for Tsuna to find me.

And the worst part was that no one was coming while I still had paperwork to do and that I wasn't allowed to do my paperwork during the waiting. It was _Halloween_, damn it! Number four of the most destructive days of the Neo Estraneo calendar, right after new year, Christmas and the founding day of the Famiglia!

I sighed and looked around in the once-normal classroom. The room was decorated as a children's room by Reborn's request, complete with a bed and a huge amount of stuffed animals. The walls were painted in a soft pink color and the windows allowed the moonlight to shine softly on the many lace patterned decorations that graced the floor, creating an almost ghostlike touch in the room.

In other words, a nightmare to many.

It was already a wonder that the room was decorated in just a few hours without the help of illusions, but that Hibari didn't disapprove of something like this in _his_ school? That fact made this entire event a _miracle_ instead of a wonder.

Maybe Reborn bribed Hibari or threatened him that Mukuro would terrorize Nanimori if he didn't allow us to use the school for Halloween… That would actually be pretty believable since Reborn denied Mukuro's right of setting a step out of our house this night and surprisingly enough, Chrome's right as well.

It was kind of sad that Mukuro and Chrome weren't allowed to come out of the house, I was sure that they would have loved scaring everyone… On the other hand, their definition of 'scaring' was a bit different from the normal definition of 'scaring'. It was borderline traumatizing and I knew it by firsthand experience as the one who taught them how to use illusions…

_If I didn't have as much experience as I have now, I would have been mentally scarred by my own students._

"…At least I'm wearing that outfit that I planned to wear on Halloween." I sighed in an attempt to erase some images from my mind. And with 'that outfit' I meant the frilly dress that made me look a bit too much like a living doll to my taste. M.M. had a field day by preparing me while the others had a field day by seeing my suffering and recording it on camera's.

They had their share of fun, like the others that played along with this Halloween event. Haru had a decorated the classroom in just a few hours with Kyoko, I-pin and Fuuta, Hana had firmly declined the offer to participate and Lambo was… probably not invited by Reborn. Hibari declined to crowd and left before I even arrived.

So _most of them_ had their share of fun, even though I was ordered to wait here in this room…

_I'm bored._

The decorations of the former-classroom-now-children's-room were mostly toys, but I wouldn't dare to play with those toys… mostly because I knew that these were sent by my Famiglia. Really, I recognized the logo that Spanner designed for fun on every single toy, even the plushies. If I squinted my eyes a bit, I could even see the camera's in the eyes of the stuffed animals.

"Maybe some music can lessen my boredom?" I wondered out loud as I let myself fall on the bed that was bigger than my own bed. But then again, my singing wasn't that great… I shrugged and started humming the first tune that came in my mind.

…

Tsuna looked at his friends in exasperation, he should have known that going to the school in the middle of the night was a bad idea. Especially since it was _Reborn_ that organized everything.

"It was hide and seek, he said." Tsuna groaned. The brunet was ordered to find his friends who were scattered throughout Nanimori without passing out from fright to win this game and come back home, but Tsuna was close to fainting from a whole different reason.

Stress.

Gokudera, who didn't bother with dressing up, was close to bombing Nanimori apart. Ryohei, who simply threw a blanket with eyeholes over himself… and it wasn't even a white blanket but a bright yellow one, was extremely unconsciously encouraging the bomber. Yamamoto, the guy who thought that wearing a baseball uniform was Halloween-like enough, was laughing and trying to calm them down… which didn't work at all.

The girls were watching from the sidelines, talking about how cheerful the guys looked… Tsuna really wanted to correct Haru and Kyoko, both dressed up as witches, that the guys weren't cheerful at all but close to destroying Hibari's territory.

And then there was Fuuta, the boy was the only sane person in here. I-pin could have been the other sane person if she didn't have to go back to home to sleep. Anyways, there was Fuuta, who was the most difficult to find because there were no destructions, 'kidnapped children' or brother-senses to help Tsuna. The boy who was dressed up as a wizard was currently ranking 'places here Zero would most likely be' to help Tsuna out. Tsuna was grateful for the help, really, but the rankings were a bit disturbing.

On place number one, Zero was most likely in Nanimori middle school after all.

"Why did she have to be here?" Tsuna asked himself as he took his first step into the school, leaving his friends waiting outside to avoid the destruction of Hibari's most prized possession. The halls were illuminated by the moonlight and the dark classrooms added to the creepy state of the school, but it was the soft familiar tune in the background that made Tsuna want to run away.

The Nanimori middle school anthem.

But as Reborn ordered, Tsuna had to find _everyone_ before he was allowed back into his home and Zero was the last one he had to find. So Tsuna walked to the source of the tune, praying that it was Zero who was humming the tune and that it wasn't Hibari's new ringtone.

The sight that Tsuna met when he opened the door to the source of the tune made him freeze in horror. A room. A _children's_ room. Complete with all the most horrifying stuff that Tsuna could imagine in a horror movie, including a child-sized doll on the bed.

And then the said doll began to rise slowly and whisper 'finally'…

Zero could proudly say that she unintentionally made Tsuna faint again.

…

Reborn chuckled evilly as he watched Tsuna faint on HD. The cameras that was installed in the stuffed dolls were totally worth the money. Reborn got valuable blackmail material this night and inspiration for new tutoring methods…

**Happy (early) Halloween! I hope that you guys will have a better Halloween than Tsuna! Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 39: guilt

"Vi-chan?" I whispered hesitantly before I caught a glimpse of what was underneath the hood. No, when the illusionist allowed me to see what was underneath the hood. Curious milky white colored eyes and familiar purple triangles on cheeks that were chubbier than I remembered them to be. "Viper."

"It has been a while, Nata." Mammo- no, Viper whispered, though even with the soft volume I could hear the strain in their voice. The familiar flames of the illusionist surrounded us and hid the outside world from my eyes. It was definitely Viper, I could recognize these flames anywhere and anytime.

"You've improved." I smiled at the floating baby as an attempt to break the ice. "An illusion that messes with time is pretty difficult to make. Even I struggled to master this skill."

"…" Viper stayed silent and stared at me, observed me, from underneath their hood. It seemed that my attempt to break the ice only made the silent and tense atmosphere worse than before.

"…It has been a while, Viper." I muttered after ten long seconds.

"Too long." Viper agreed before realizing that the words escaped them and shutting up again.

"Viper?" I frowned.

"Mammon." Viper corrected me. "It's Mammon now."

"…Right, should I call you Ma-kun now?" I asked. The silence was neither a protest nor a confirmation, so I sighed weakly and went along with it. "Ma-kun it is then."

"…You're not supposed to be here, you are dead." Mammon stated bluntly. The floating baby still stared at me like I was supposed to be a ghost or, indeed, dead and the words kind of stabbed my heart. I returned a shaky smile, because I knew that all of that was true. I _was_ supposed to be dead. For a few centuries even.

"I am." I agreed.

"And yet you're here."

"…Indeed."

"Tell me, Nata. How." Mammon ordered. "No, tell me why."

"Why I am alive?" I asked hesitantly.

"You know what I mean, Nata!" Mammon shouted, breaking their carefully carved mask and showing the raw emotions that it hid from the outside world. "Why are you alive after you died? Why are you back even though I was sure that I lost you? Just… _why_?!"

"I-I don't know." I stuttered almost soundlessly soft when Mammon's sadness affected their flames and the illusions around us. Memories flashed by and I flinched when I recognized most of the dark memories. I was the main character in them after all, just from a different point of view than what I remembered myself. But why did these specific memories flash by? "I just-"

"No excuses, Nata. None of that. Never." Mammon glared. The illusion stopped shifting at a familiar scene for a small second before shifting again and covering the mistake that the illusionist made. Too late, I already saw the scene that I hoped to never encounter again. I faintly recognized the dark halls that were covered by blood. I knew the numbers painted on the doors. I knew the blinding white rooms, though they were blood red in the illusion, and my hand was involuntarily raised to the hidden scar on my forehead.

_The former secret base of the Estraneo._

"It was the Estraneo, wasn't it?" Mammon stated. "You are _that_ Estraneo subject."

I tore my eyes from the still shifting illusion behind the floating baby and stared at my old friend that started to curse out loud when they realized who I was. _What_ I was. An experiment.

"_You_ were the Estraneo subject of reincarnation and immortality. That would explain why Reborn all but '_ordered'_ me to send him information about the Estraneo files." Mammon continued and I made a connection.

"You were the one that had those missing files!" I exclaimed in surprise. "I thought that they were lost forever!"

"What former information broker would I be if I left valuable information behind? It earned me a lot of money you know." Mammon huffed in a tone that was not the harsh tone from before, but definitely not friendly either. "And death threats, from your dearest older brother, Nata. Let's not forget about those."

"I should have known that he did something like that." I sighed. Now I finally knew how my brother got the information about the Estraneo experiments, I wished that I didn't know. He knew stuff about me that I didn't know about myself and somehow I didn't want to find out what it was. Verde had too much experimentation material with the data he got from me alone and I didn't want to give him more reasons to create paperwork for me because of newfound inspiration.

And it seemed that Mukuro's and my files were somehow mixed up from what I could understand from Reborn and Viper.

"And it's Zero now, Vi-chan."

"It's Mammon now, Zero." Viper retorted. "I should have charged you money for calling me _Vi_-chan… but I guess that I will hold back because of _that_."

_That?_ I frowned and then it hit me. Finally I realized why the memories of my death flashed by in those illusions. The question that Ma-kun asked earlier was not about me being reincarnated. It was because of _that_.

"…You feel guilty." I frowned, there was no way that Vipe- Mammon _wouldn't_ charge me money. "You feel guilty of what happened to me."

"…" Mammon looked away and stayed silent again. Again it wasn't protest, but not a confirmation either. But for me it was and my eyes narrowed at that action. Years have passed since _that_ happened, and the illusionist was still guilty about it? I couldn't really blame them though…

"Don't." I whispered.

"Don't what?"

"You know what I mean, V-Mammon."

"I refuse."

"It's _not_ your fault." I frowned.

"It is. It's my fault for asking you to accompany me, my fault that you had to cover me… It's my fault that you died." Mammon whispered the last part.

"I-it was my own choice, Mammon." I stated softly. I never saw my old friend like this before and I didn't know how to explain it properly. I didn't do it for Viper alone, but for myself as well. I knew that I wouldn't be able to live in peace while knowing that I could prevent the death of a friend and while I knew that it was the same the other way around…

_I _knew that I would be reborn again and I had peace with that... but I was the only one ho knew that.

And that ended up with Viper being the victim. Reborn was a victim of my stupidity as well, but in a different way. Reborn was… Reborn. Viper was just Vi-chan… or Ma-kun now. Viper wasn't as used as death like Reborn back then, Reborn was a _hitman_ Viper was an _information broker_. They weren't prepared to see someone they knew die in front of them like Reborn was. Viper wasn't as prepared as Reborn to see someone die right in front of them.

Viper wasn't prepared at all… and I couldn't help but think that it was partially my fault.

"I didn't have to follow. I didn't have to cover for you. It was all my own choice that ended in my death." I continued, my voice becoming more steadfast as the words escaped my lips. I messed up, I knew it. The relationship that Viper and I once had was… strained because of my missteps and I-I could only hope that our relationship will mend with time. That I could salvage the remains of the friendship that were left by my decisions. "It is all _my_ fault."

"If I didn't ask you to come-"

"Then I would have died anyways." I stated bluntly. "I am- _was_ the daughter of the best hitwoman in the world and the sister of the best hitman of the world. I was prepared for the fact that I could be a valuable hostage. I was constantly reminded that I lived in a harsh world and I was taught to remember that I could die. Because even as a skilled illusionist… I'm not invincible, you know? I am- was only human too."

"…Nata-"

"Illusionists need a certain amount of focus to uphold many strong illusions at once, you know that. That was why you asked me to come and help you. You needed help and I agreed to it. We both knew that it was dangerous to gather information in the middle of a battlefield and I… simply lost focus when I noticed that something was wrong. That Reborn was there as well."

"You weren't supposed to agree!" Mammon shouted. "Yes, I asked you because I needed your help. I needed your support, not only physically but mentally as well! I didn't want you to be harmed in _my_ mission. I just-… you weren't supposed to agree."

"And let you go on a suicide mission alone?" I asked and I saw the baby flinch at the mention of the suicide mission. Yes. I knew about that suicide mission and I, with my stupidity, decided that I didn't want to see hurt Viper by coming along and trying to prevent them from being harmed. I just didn't know that Reborn was assigned to kill Viper and I doubt that he knew as well. Otherwise Viper would be dead.

We were all too unprepared.

"How do you know about that?" Viper whispered almost soundlessly, but the question echoed in the silence of the illusion that they set up.

"…I know a few tricks. I once knew someone who was like a human lie detector so I developed a way to 'lie' to him and make sure he couldn't find out that I lied at the same time. I told the truth, but twisted it in such a way that he couldn't see it was a lie. Instead of lying, I learned how to deceive… and I deceived the right people to find out what they were planning-"

"Why." Viper asked me, though it sounded more like an order.

"Because I knew that they feared you."

"You were more dangerous than me."

"They didn't know that. Deceiving, remember? They didn't know that I was the one that was more advanced in illusions, but they knew that you are an esper. Dangerous."

"…You knew about that?"

"I always did… alright, maybe not _always,_ but I knew. And I didn't care. You were Vi-chan and I knew that I wouldn't be able to live while I know that you could die out there while I had knowledge of the suicide mission. That I could safe you."

"You didn't need to." Mammon scowled.

"I didn't." I agreed. "But I wanted to. I was prepared to die if needed."

"You were prepared for the wrong thing then."

"I do not regret saving your life, Vi-chan. I only regret not being able to say that it wasn't your fault."

"It was my fault."

"Then I forgive you."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"…"

"…For free even."

"…"

"…"

"…Hey, N-Zero?"

"Yes, V-Ma-kun?"

"I'm glad that you're back. The others simply don't understand us illusionists." Mammon whispered with a silent 'thank you'.

"Kufufufu, I'm glad that I'm back too." I whispered back, the 'you're welcome' was left unsaid but the illusionist caught it anyways. It wasn't much, but I felt like we could start with rekindling our friendship from this point. I hoped that we could and I hoped that Ma-kun felt the same way. "What is life without a good illusionist?"

"Muu, the mist battle would have been boring without a good opponent like you." Mammon nodded. I looked at the floating baby with disbelieve and slight amusement. Did they think that I was the mist guardian… _even though I'm the Neo Estraneo Primo?_

…Now I was thinking about it, I made sure that no one knew that I was the boss and Mammon couldn't make a connection between the Famiglia and me without my last name… Which was information that the Varia still didn't know.

I kind of expected Mammon making a connection once they realized that I was a Estraneo subject though.

"Kufufufu, believe me. The mist battle isn't going to be boring." I chuckled hesitantly at the incredibility of this situation. The Varia mist guardian chuckled too, probably for an entirely different reason than me, before shifting the illusion around us again. With a wave of their hand the scene where we were in before was replaced by our old houses and I smiled in nostalgia.

"…I can't believe that you're related to that violent guy." Mammon muttered after a long moment of comfortable silence and recalling memories from when we were younger.

"Hmm, who? Reborn?" I sweatdropped. "We had this conversation already when we were younger… well, _older_ than this actually."

"Not him, the cloud guardian." Mammon corrected me.

"…"

"…Why are you staring at me like that, Nata?"

"You… No, nevermind." I said. I almost forgot that I used the _Hibari_ name of all names that I could use as an alias. Mammon shrugged and waved their hand to lift the illusion.

"I will keep the reincarnation business a secret for free." Mammon promised. "I owe you after all."

"…Thank you." I smiled with the brightest smile that I had. "I would like to say that I owed you as well, but I'm sure that you will use that against me in the future so I'll just say that I missed you as well."

"Muu, you understand me too well so now and then."

…

The text that Tsuna sent me next morning was surprisingly short, only mentioning that Yamamoto won and that the mist battles were next. I had a strong feeling that something… more happened after I left, but I ignored that feeling in favor for the excitement that I felt.

The mist battle was next.

"I have good news." I smiled when Mukuro walked in my room unannounced. Again.

"What news?" Mukuro asked.

"You're up tonight… And your opponent is your sempai."

"Kufufu, finally… wait. My sempai?"

"Apparently, your opponent was someone I used to tutor." I grinned.

"That's not everything, is it?" Mukuro grinned back, sensing the amusement behind my grin and the promise of a challenge.

"They think that _I_ am their opponent."

…

"It's time for our mist guardian to come forwards." Reborn announced. I smiled in amusement when the heads of Tsuna and his guardians practically looked to the entrance of the gym _in synchronization_ and stifled a full-blown laugh when I saw their expressions at the sight of the entering people.

I was expecting to see the teens surprised at the sight of Ken and Chikusa, but when they started shouting that Mukuro had to be the, rather unwanted, mist guardian I almost lost my control. The reactions were simply too funny, even though the assumptions were right.

"Could that be Mukuro?!" Gokudera scowled at the pineapple shaped hair behind Ken and Chikusa.

And I lost it.

I tried, I really tried to stay silent but I couldn't. especially when Chrome revealed herself to be _not_ Mukuro.

"Kufufufu, I told you that their reactions would be amusing when we are early instead of late." I laughed before lifting the illusion that hid Mukuro and me from the outside world.

"Kufufu. I can see what you meant." Mukuro smirked.

"…HIIIIEEEEE?!" Tsuna shrieked when he swirled around and fell backwards. Mukuro was standing directly behind him, he had for a while but Tsuna didn't notice it before I actually lifted the illusion.

"Kufufufufufu- this is too funny- kufufufu." I burst out laughing again.

"Zero-chan, Mukuro-sama." Chrome said softly. "Good luck."

"I don't need luck." Mukuro smirked.

"Thanks Chrome, we need it." I laughed despite the earlier words of my student. I tried to contain my laughter and gave my daughter a smile. "Seeing this match might help with your own training, so pay attention Chrome-chan."

"I will." Chrome smiled back.

"W-who are you?" Tsuna asked warily as he eyed Chrome's hair.

"My name is Estraneo-Dokuro Chrome." Chrome introduced herself.

"A Nanimori middle school student." Reborn added.

"I see that you did some research, arcobaleno." Mukuro stated harshly.

"What uncle would I be if I didn't know who my niece is?" Reborn smirked.

"A _former_ brother of the mother."

"…Niece?" Tsuna sweatdropped when Mukuro and Reborn started yet another glaring contest.

"Yep." I beamed. "Chrome is my daughter."

""…WHAT?!""

…

**Omake: the other mist**

"I don't get it!" Giotto fretted.

"What don't you get, Giotto?" Talbot sighed. He had been talking to Giotto for a while already, but it seemed that the man didn't pay any attention to him at all. So much for being friends and lending ears when needed.

"Teacher told me that if I bonded with another mist, that weird attraction to Alex would disappear." Giotto answered in a hushed tone and Talbot choked on air.

"J-just what are you talking about, Giotto?!" Talbot coughed.

"Teacher said that this weird attraction was only here because I missed a mist in my Famiglia and because Alex was a mist. He said that Alex already had a sky, even if that person is dead, and that I had to find another mist to get rid of that feeling!" Giotto continued without another care in the world than that.

"That would… make sense, I guess?" Talbot sweatdropped. Just what was this man implying about his sempai and comrade-in-suffering-from-their-eccentric-teacher?

"Then why has that feeling not disappeared already even though Daemon bonded with me?!"

"Hmm, what feeling, Giotto?" A familiar warm voice asked.

"A-Alex, since when were you here?" Giotto blushed when he saw the familiar blonde standing in the door opening.

"I just arrived." Alex smiled. "Dinner is ready, we will be waiting in the dinner room."

"Thanks." Talbot muttered as he stared at the man that was so frustrated a little while ago even though he was a blushing mess right now. And then he understood it. He understood everything and the scene became a hundred times more amusing to Talbot.

"S-sure." Giotto nodded.

"See you guys later then. Don't let the others waiting." Alex nodded back before leaving.

"Hehehe, I see." Talbot chuckled when Alex was out of sight.

"See what?"

"Your attraction." Talbot grinned

"You know what this feeling is?" Giotto asked.

"You really want to know?"

"Tell me already!"

"Find out yourself, life is better with a bit of drama."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I'm still busy, but I still managed to write between my busy moments and that may not have been my best idea. I had the basis of this chapter already typed out and I kept on correcting and changing it even though I still have my exams (Who invented this hell?) so I will update this now before I somehow forget studying at all. I don't think that there will be an update next week either (busy times for me :'() so I'll apologize with another omake.**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 16**

The thin layer of snow that innocently covered the backyard was glistering ominously in the soft rays of the morning sun. Renata was happy with it. Renato wasn't. The teenage boy glared at the white promise of pain before grumbling something incomprehensible and walking to his room to prepare himself for the yearly tradition.

After making sure that he was wearing warm and waterproof clothes, later he would admit that he was wearing a bulletproof vest underneath his jacket as well, Renato walked to the backyard where his father and little sister were building a snowman… or something more complicated than that. It looked like a man though… an actual _humanoid_ man instead of the usual deformed snowman.

"Reborn! Do you want to build a snowman?!" Renata beamed when she saw her brother and Renato couldn't refuse the sparkly smile. Damn the sparkles. He carefully looked around and took fast steps to his sister, hoping that he wouldn't be ambushed.

The hoping was in vain.

"AMBUSH!" Serena Sinclair announced from the roof. The mother, who took advantage of the thicker layer of snow on the roof, threw her snowballs at the moment that Renato left the safety of the house and hit the boy square at the back of his head.

Renata managed to blink twice in confusion before she was carried away by her father in a speed that was supposed to be humanly impossible. For a non-Sinclair at least. Renata glared at his mother and threw a snowball back. He didn't miss, but Serena was prepared for the battle.

"Alright mother, this means WAR!"

When the, rather intense, sonwballwa- snowball fight was over, both Renato and Serena had to unfreeze themselves with the hot chocolate that Renata prepared. As the hot liquid almost burned the back of his throat, Renato could finally understand why his sister loved hot chocolate as much as she did.

Despite him not being someone who liked sweetness, the numbness that the 'friendly' war ended up in and sight of a single snowman, unharmed, in the middle of a battlefield made him appreciate the warmth that the drink provided.

The boy looked at his mother, who was still unfreezing, his father, who was keeping Serena warm, and his little sister, who was smiling at the sight of today's result, and nodded. This warm feeling was why Renato, secretly, loved the daily life of the Sinclair's… no matter how crazy it was.

**Sorry, no reaction on the comments this time (busy busy busy). I'll make it up with next chapter I guess ;). Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 40: confusion and reactions

"So that is your Famiglia, Mukuro-sama?" Chrome asked Mukuro while I was still trying to recover from my laughing fit. The reaction of said Famiglia when they found out that Chrome was my daughter and that Mukuro was here all this time was priceless and the shock of those facts actually silenced the usually loud teens.

"Sadly enough." Mukuro sighed almost mockingly. That seemed to snap Gokudera out of his shock.

"Wait! _You_ are the mist guardian?!" Gokudera exclaimed. "But, the girl! I thought that _she_ was your student, midget!"

"Kufufufu, Chrome is indeed my student." I laughed an explanation. "But Mukuro was my student even before that. Actually, I was the one who taught him most that he knows about illusions now."

"Wha- you." Gokudera stuttered like he couldn't find the words that he wanted to say.

"Oya? Did you lose your tongue, hurricane bomb?" Mukuro smirked. "Or was the obvious fact too much for you to understand? Didn't you tell your storm that I belonged to the Vongola, Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

"How the fuck were you able to teach that son of a-" or he just needed the time to find the… appropriate words.

"Estraneo experiments." I interrupted the silver haired teen before he was maimed by Muku-chan. And Gokudera shut up. The teen looked at me with an incredulous look in his eyes and his mouth still half open to insult Mukuro. Though the others didn't have the same extreme reaction, they were still visibly confused… which confused me in return. Why were they reacting like that?

And then I realized it.

Though I had told Tsuna about me being an Estraneo experiment, I didn't tell the others about that. For all they knew I was just a normal girl or, in Gokudera's case, a surviving member of the Estraneo that Mukuro didn't kill.

"…I forgot to tell you guys?" I shrugged sheepishly.

"Of all the things that you could forget, Zero." Reborn sighed before turning his attention to Tsuna's guardians. "Zero is an experiment by the Estraneo, an experiment that involved reincarnation and immortality. In fact, Zero was my sister in her former life."

"…" The teens continued staring at me, though with more confusion and almost a glint of hope that it was a joke, and I nodded sheepishly in agreement. I really did forget that these guys didn't know and I _almost_ forgot that my files and Mukuro's were mixed up. Almost.

"Let's just say that." I flower-smiled. The mix-up could actually work to my advantage since I didn't have to explain that I knew their possible ancestors. I looked at Tsuna, who stumbled out of the way a little while ago, and gave him a flower-smile as well.

Though I knew that Reborn wouldn't tell anyone whose intentions could be bad about this… 'secret' because he was my brother and siblings were supposed to look after each other, Tsuna did know and still didn't tell anyone while we didn't have the same relationship. He didn't even tell his closest friends. He really was one of the best friends that anyone could wish for and I wished that others could see how amazing this guy was.

"Aren't we forgetting about something?" Mukuro asked casually while glaring at the Vongola guardians and sun arcobaleno, earning the attention of the others again. Reborn, who stopped glaring at the teen somewhere in the middle of his explanation, returned his glare.

"Hmm, o right. The mist battle." I realized as I glanced at our opponents in the other side of the gym. I caught Mammon looking at us in something akin to confusion and waved at the baby. Mammon waved back, but not without the questioning gesture that they sent me. I simply smirked, they would find out why Mukuro, Chrome, Ken and Chikusa were here when the battle begins.

The man on the fancy chair in front of the gola mosca caught my attention before I could turn my eyes away from the Varia. Was that the boss of the Varia? I frowned at the resemblance between that man and Ricardo… But compared to the resemblance that Tsuna and his guardians held to the first Vongola's, the resemblance was almost minimal.

_But the flames that I encountered in Milan…_

If this man was the owner of those flames, it was possible that he wasn't related to Ricardo at all. Though the flames of wrath that I encountered in Milan reminded me of Ricardo, it was pretty clear that Ricardo's flames had a… something like an 'element' that I liked to dub 'The Vongola element'. Everyone related to Giotto had that weird distinctive feeling to their flames, even Nono as I realized in the short meetings that we had. So I thought that the Vongola element was hereditary…

But if that was the case, wouldn't that make 'the worst shitty boss in the world' illegible for the Vongola Decimo title since he wasn't related to Giotto? Or was I simply overthinking things?

…

Mukuro noticed his teacher staring at the side of the… enemies and looked at the Varia side as well. There were less people than he expected, just a robot, a guy with an ugly haircut and umbrella's strapped to his back, a man in a chair that definitely didn't belong in a gym and a small hooded figure with a frog on their head.

His mismatched eyes lingered at the hooded figure as Mukuro remembered what his dearest Zero told him about this 'Ma-kun'. So this was his sempai? The arcobaleno of the mist? How anticlimactic of fate that he out of all people had to fight _another_ arcobaleno when he hadn't finished his first fight.

The sun arcobaleno was a formidable opponent.

Mukuro, despite the fact that he had to fight another one of the seven strongest in the world, smirked at the promise of an entertaining fight and his certain victory. Yes, this 'Ma-kun' might be one of the arcobaleno, but that didn't change the fact that Zero prepared him for someone that was as experienced as her.

And considering that his dearest teacher remembered her former life's like he did… Mukuro was prepared. Too prepared even.

It took all of Mukuro's self-control to not start with laughing mockingly at his opponent. He would have if it wasn't for the fact that he would have given one of his many advantages away if he did laugh like he knew everything. Because he did know everything. He knew the weaknesses of his opponent, though they could be a bit outdated, he knew the habits of his opponent, he even knew how the flame signature of the arcobaleno felt. All courtesy of Zero, of course.

Who knew that having his sempai as his opponent could be so advantageous for him?

Mukuro settled for a soft, but dark, chuckle and returned his gaze to the face of his teacher. She was frowning a bit at the sight of the Varia-side, but Mukuro shrugged it off as her looking at the robot. It didn't escape him that the robot suspiciously resembled the one on the blueprints that arrived at their home a few days ago.

"Once again, good luck." Chrome giggled, this seemed to ease the frown and to make a bright sparkly smile appear.

"I don't need luck." Mukuro stated again, but with a soft edge in his words. The purple haired girl meant well and managed to make Zero smile again, so he could forgive her from doubting him to win.

"She isn't doubting you, or anything like that, Muku-chan." Zero suddenly stated like she had read his mind.

"What do you mean?" Mukuro asked with a smile that hid his slight surprise.

"Though mind reading isn't my forte, hell not at all when cards aren't involved, I can at least catch a few hidden emotions from those that I know best." The albino girl sighed. Mukuro's smile became a bit more genuine at those words. Despite the five to six years that he hadn't met Zero, she still _knew_ him. She _understood_ him better than anyone else, especially because they had similar experiences in life… or life's.

"Oya oya, and you never bothered to tell me about this skill?" Mukuro asked with fake hurt and sadness.

"Kufufufu, maybe because I'm no good with mind reading." Zero chuckled. "But really, wishing someone luck does not equal doubt in your ability, Muku-chan. It simply means that they are supporting you."

"…Aren't you going to wish me luck then?" Mukuro smirked.

"Well, I was going to." Zero smirked back. "Good luck, Muku-chan."

"Please spare me this sickening sweetness." Gokudera grumbled. Mukuro looked at the source of the aggravating noise and turned his smirk a bit darker. He almost forgot that 'his Famiglia' was here as well. It would have been perfect if they weren't here- no wait, this was the perfect opportunity.

"I don't really _need_ luck to win, but thank you, my dearest Zero." Mukuro began slyly. "Though I'd like to have a reward after I win."

"Hmm, a reward?" Zero mused out loud while cutely tilting her head in confusion. "Do you want me to teach you how to create body doubles that has the same skills as you and have their own consciousness like the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu? It is pretty tiring though, so I wouldn't recommend to use this skill… otherwise I would have used it for doing paperwork."

That sounded… interesting. Interesting as in something that came straight out of a popular shounen manga series or an anime.

"I was actually thinking of something like a kiss." Mukuro stated bluntly, though he would like to learn that skill somewhere in the future.

"You little-" Reborn cursed, realizing the mist's intention to claim his former sibling as _his_.

"It's fine." Zero interjected before Reborn could kill her student.

"Zero!" Reborn scowled, but Zero simply smiled and dismissed her former brother with a short shake of her head.

"Just focus on the fight, Muku-chan. Your opponent is a highly skilled illusionist, so remember what I taught you and all of your advantages."

"Right." Mukuro almost purred as he walked to the middle of the gym. "I will beat this… sempai as fast as I can then."

…

Tsuna wasn't sure why he was upset when Zero agreed to the whims of her student, but he did understand why Reborn was… upset? No, make that furious. Reborn is never upset, _never_.

"Zero, why did you say that the kiss was alright." Reborn hissed and Tsuna, for once, was glad to hear this tone of disapproval which wasn't exactly aimed at the albino girl, but at the blue haired teen that just left for his battlefield.

"Hmm? He was just provoking you, Reborn" Zero smiled innocently with sparkles and flowers that made Tsuna's heart skip a beat… wait, what? "…And he didn't say where I had to kiss him. A kiss on the cheek is a normal greeting in some cultures." She added as more flowers simply appeared out of nowhere. Tsuna quickly turned his attention to his guardi- _friends_ in a desperate attempt to see if he was the only one who was affected like that.

He was.

Gokudera was scowling at Mukuro, Yamamoto was busy talking to Gokudera who didn't pay any attention to him and nii-san was… being extreme. The people who came with Zero's adopted daughter, who was older than Zero, and the said daughter weren't affected either. In fact, it looked like they were too used to the sparkly flowery sweet- STOP MIND! Stop right here!

"…Sometimes it's so easy to ignore the fact that you are a mist as well." Reborn remarked.

"W-what has that to do with the k-kiss?" Tsuna asked while he was still trying to recover from his confusion and shock at his reaction on a smile. A simple smile that radiated warmth, innocence and- no! Kami, please let Zero stop using mafia-seduction even though she isn't aware of it! It was bad for his heart, damn it.

"Being a mist means: 'creating something from nothing, and nothing from something. Thus bewildering the enemy, to render the Famiglia's true form intangible with visions of deceit'." Reborn stated like it explained everything.

It didn't.

"Kufufufu, it means that we mists deceive." Zero explained sheepishly.

"Oh." Tsuna nodded weakly. At this point he didn't care anymore. The flowers weren't going to disappear anytime soon and the sparkles were probably permanently hanging around the violet eyed girl. The voice in the back of his head didn't exactly help with caring either, it simply urged him to calm down and enjoy the view.

But of course, Reborn got him out of his dazed state with a harsh kick to his head.

"Snap out of it, Dame-Tsuna. And Zero, stop using mafia-seduction."

…

"The audience area has also been set up in a designated space within the building. As with the battle of the storm, infrared-triggered lasers have been installed. Please be careful." The Cervello continued their explanation as a cage was lowered to keep the audience away from the fight. I had to take a few steps to my left to avoid getting hit by the said cage and seeing me move made Ma-kun truly realize that I wasn't their opponent.

"Muu and here I thought that the battle would be worthwhile." They sighed while ignoring the pineapple haired teen in front of them.

"Kufufu, aren't we forgetting something, arcobaleno?" Mukuro asked, annoyed by the fact that he had been completely ignored.

"No, I did not forget about the criminal who isn't worth my time. Time is money after all-" Mammon stated, but before the sentence was finished the world literally fell apart with one of Mukuro's illusions.

The ground split and gravity pulled us all down to the dark depths of void. I heard the surprised gasps from Tsuna's guardians and Tsuna's shriek of surprise as they fell as well, but I ignored them in favor of speaking to my friend from a former life.

"Hmm, I should probably say that _I _am the one whotaught Mukuro how to use illusions." I smirked at the mild surprise of the mist arcobaleno. The baby looked at me with an unreadable expression before huffing and looking at Mukuro.

"I should have expected that." They nodded as… chains seemed to fall from their cloak. Why were there chains underneath Mammon's cloak? I didn't remember Viper using chains as weapons… though they were useful to restrain people. "It seems that the battle will be worthwhile after all."

…

**Omake: before the mist battle**

Mammon was staring at their opponent in confusion and I shook my head in amusement. They really didn't know that I wasn't their opponent. I ignored the Cervello's explanation about the mist battle and looked at the people on the 'Vongola side' of the gym.

"…Why are you smiling like that, Chrome-chan?" I sweatdropped when I saw my daughter smiling- no, grinning. She had a huge and satisfied grin planted on her face and I actually had to wonder whether it hurt to grin like that or not.

"I'm just _so_ proud of Mukuro-sama." Chrome almost chirped… wait were those tears in her eyes? And Chrome wasn't the only one, Ken was being pretty emotional as well though he was facing the other side of the gym. Were they really alright?

"Don't worry about it." Chikusa sighed before I could voice my concerns. "It is very normal for them to react like this when it concerns Mukuro-san. I'm just glad that M.M. isn't here to witness whatever just happened."

"…Sure." I frowned. But _what_ did just happen for them to react like this?

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Sorry for the wait! After busy times, like failing some of my tests and acing the others and many birthdays (including my own), I finally managed to type this chapter. Really, busy times are so… busy. Did that make any sense? Alright, as a quick reply to most of my reviews:**

**Matter number 1, Zero's sky: it isn't Giotto, nor Sephira… But Zero (Alex at the time) really cared for her sky. It will be more interesting to reveal their identity later on, so I won't say who it is yet ;P.**

**Matter number 2, pairings: Hibari is out, I think, the others though… we'll see the development I guess. I hope. On a side note, if Alex didn't die at the time she died, there was a huge change that she would have either been paired with Giotto or Alaude.**

**Matter number 3, have I ever told you guys how much I loved you?: seriously, thank you for all your reviews, follows and/or favorites! I never expected to ever reach 300 follows! So here comes matter number 4:**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 17**

Apparently, jumping out of the window from the third floor could result in one more history teacher hospitalized which meant that Renato and his classmates had nothing to do in the period of self-studying… who was he kidding?

His classmates _always_ had something to do, ranging from productive to plain idiotic stuff. Idiotic as in trying to keep the class in check and productive as in doing a weird experiment on their desk- no, make that idiotic as well.

Renato ignored the shrieks of surprise when the lights fell out because of the stupid experiment that the green haired moron was conducting and glared at said moron. Or tried to. Winter was coming and with winter, shorter days which meant that the classroom was dark and resulting in the fact that the effect of Renato's glare was softened.

"D-does anyone have light?" Someone who was closer to Renato, which meant that they could see the full intensity of the glare, asked in a desperate attempt to diffuse the situation.

"I have a lighter." Another replied. No one actually questioned the middle schooler why they were carrying a lighter around, they were all part of the mafia world and lighters were damn useful when used in the right way. Or the wrong one, it depends on how you viewed it. Anyways, everyone understood why the person who replied had a lighter with them.

A small flame appeared from somewhere in the room and suddenly the curtains were pulled closed, making the soft glow of the light more spooky than it was supposed to be.

"What are you doing?" Renato hissed at the unidentified person who closed the curtains and blocked the last rays of sunlight.

"Because I have an awesome idea kora." Was his answer. Of course, let's count on the idiotic blonde to do something as stupid as darkening the classroom even more.

"We have no time for your stupid ideas Co-" Renato began, but he was interrupted before he could finish his sentence.

"I have a spirit board over here kora!" The idiotic moron said in a cheery tune.

"…And how exactly did you get this spirit board?" Renato frowned when he saw wooden objects being waved around.

"Some hooded guy gave it to me when I was rushing to the toilets." The blonde answered a bit too proudly. "Anyways, who is in?"

"Not me." Renato answered.

…

Apparently, Renato was in. He was forced of course, there was no way that Renato would voluntarily join a childish game like that. How he was forced to join the game with the blonde moron, green haired idiot who caused the lights to burst and a dark green haired girl with some kind of flower tattoo on her face was a mystery. And it would stay a mystery if you asked Renato.

"Is anyone there?" The girl asked politely. "If anyone is there, please make yourself known."

"This is stupid." The idiot scoffed, but as soon as the last word left his mouth the wooden piece moved around. Renato didn't move the wooden piece, instead he tried to stop the movement to no avail.

H-I

"…Hi? We summon a spirit and they say 'hi'?" The moron asked incredulously.

"…You seriously believe in this?" Renato chuckled. "How childish."

"Guys, we have to continue or the spirit will be angered." The girl said, shutting the males up. They knew better than angering a woman because of experiences with… though women. "Thank you. Does anyone have a question?"

"I do, kora." The moron cheered. "Will sempai ever notice me?" With that question, the wooden piece moved again and spelled the answer.

T-H-A-T-I-S-A-S-T-U-P-I-D-Q-U-E-S-T-I-O-N-A-S-K-S-O-M-E-T-H-I-N-G-I-K-N-O-W

"Apparently you know that you are stupid." Renato snorted.

"I didn't move the wooden piece though kora." The moron muttered.

"…Don't look at me, this is scientifically seen idiotic." The idiot answered.

"Let's continue!" The girl smiled when the gazes were now aimed at her. Again, the males shut up and complied. They had bad experiences with females that smiled like that.

"If that question is out… what is that guys favorite color kora?" The blonde asked as he pointed to the green haired teen.

"I have a name, you know?"

"I forgot it ko…ra?"

G-R-E-E-N

"…Is your favorite color green?" The moron asked, looking a bit paler than before.

"…Yes."

"How-"

"I don't know." Renato interrupted the moron. If he didn't, they would face the wrath of a girl who was raised in the way of the Mafiosi.

"Thanks." The said girl smiled. "Now then, who does Renato like the most at the moment?" That question somehow raised the interest of more than one girl in the classroom. Who wouldn't be interested in the person who Renato liked the most?

H-I-S

Renato was trying to stop the movements of the wooden piece in his hand again, but like before it was to no avail.

S

As the realization that the words that were spelled couldn't be-

I

stopped, Renato paled.

S

There was no way that he wanted-

T

the world to know who he liked-

E

the most! In a burst of determination, something snapped and Renato finally managed to fling the wooden piece away. The teen didn't even have the time to realize that a yellow flame appeared on his fingertips as he was flinging the piece away before it disappeared as he was busy trying to calm himself down.

There was absolutely no way in all the seven hells that he was going let the world know who his weakness was!

"…Now we have angered the spirit!" The girl gasped.

"There is no such things as spirits." The green haired idiot supplied. "We are simply unconsciously moving the wooden piece to the answers that we think of. Like my favorite color, it was obvious when seeing my hair color and that sempai, considering we don't know whether sempai will notice you or not."

"Then what about that last answer kora?"

"That one is obviou-"

"No. We. Angered. A. Spirit." The girl stated stubbornly.

"Like we'd believe tha-" Renato began, but he shut up when indigo and white colored flames surrounded the classroom. Suddenly, the classroom was filled with screams and loud apologies. Panic overtook the actions of the middle schoolers and tables were upturned in attempts to run away in a dark environment.

Renato simply frowned and wondered why the floating flames felt… familiar. Sure, he was freaked out, but his curiosity was a bit stronger than that. Besides, the flames were assuring him that he was safe.

"Well, that was easy." Someone chuckled as the light was turned on again. The hooded figure in the door opening smirked at the middle schoolers and walked in. Casually, like nothing strange happened just a few seconds ago.

Black eyes followed the hooded person to walk to the teacher's desk, Renato knew this person. It was his neighbor after all… but what were they doing here?

"I am your new teacher." The Sinclair's neighbor smirked. "I will be teaching you guys about dying will flames. Of course, I will only teach those with an affinity."

"…And what are these 'dying will flames'?" Renato asked, breaking the shocked silence at the announcement.

"You used them for a second, Sinclair, but as you probably don't remember I will give you another example." The new teacher nodded before gesturing to the indigo and white flames that were hovering around. "Those."

"…What the hell kora." The blonde moron breathed. "Where did they come from?"

"From our dear volunteer, of course." The teacher answered. Renato glared at his neighbor, that sounded really suspicious…

"Kufufufu, it was nothing." Renata chuckled as she walked in and let the flames disappear with a flick of her hand. Renato's glare changed into a softened smirk at the sight of his little sister, but frowned at the realization that his sister ended up being able to use supernatural powers that defied the laws of nature…

"Like I said, obvious." Renato heard a certain green haired teen mutter behind him.

"Ahemsistercomplexahem kora."

They were lucky that Renata was here, or Renato would definitely have killed these guys.

**Ah, how much I love writing about the Sinclair's. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter 41: a battle between students

The only reason why Tsuna wasn't a screaming mess right now, was because Reborn was calm. So instead of screaming, he shrieked… loudly. _Just what is going on?_

Tsuna looked at the dark abyss beneath him and swallowed another scream as he felt gravity pull him closer to that never-ending darkness. Was this the end of his life? Was he going to die this young? And in a mafia-feud even, Tsuna never got the chance to actually _live _his life in a normal way.

"Hmm, I should probably say that I am the one who taught Mukuro how to use illusions." Tsuna heard Zero say calmly. How could she be calm in this situation? The world was literally falling apart in an ill…usion…?

And with that thought, the fall stopped for Tsuna. He blinked in confusions as he tried to sit up on the floor he was sprawled over. Warily, Tsuna looked around and noticed that his friends were all in a semi-unconscious state on the floor like he undoubtedly was before.

"Illusions." Tsuna breathed when he realized again that everything he just saw was real.

"You recovered pretty fast kora." Collonello remarked when he saw Tsuna sitting upright.

"I see that you have learned a bit about illusions, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn added.

"W-where is the… what I saw just now? The illusion?" Tsuna asked hesitantly.

"Illusions exist as long as you believe in them." Reborn answered. "The more experienced you are, the easier you realize that every illusion is fake despite your mind and body saying otherwise. So reject reality and illusions won't hurt you, Zero once taught me that."

"Zero did?" Tsuna wondered out loud as he looked at the albino girl. The said girl was casually sitting on the floor with her pale purple colored eyes glued to the fight. Zero appeared as she always was like… but something was off.

Tsuna couldn't see what, but something was wrong about Zero right now. The voice in the back of his head informed that it was like she wasn't _there_, but somewhere entirely else. And yet, Zero was right _there_.

With a slight hint of hesitation, Tsuna approached Zero. Fully intend to simply ask her what was going on, but as soon as he touched Zero's shoulder he pulled his hand away as if it was on fire. Zero's shoulder was warm, moving, _living_… and yet it wasn't. It was cold, unmoving, _dead_.

_Another illusion… but stronger this time_, Tsuna realized as he made a connection to the words that came from the back of his head and what Reborn just said. Tsuna's mind and body thought that Zero was there, but in reality Zero wasn't there at all. In reality…

As soon as Tsuna realized that this Zero wasn't the Zero he knew, the illusion became more transparent. Allowing Tsuna to see that Zero wasn't there, but somewhere entirely else. And the brunet wished that he never found out where the girl really was.

_What is she doing there?!_

…

Would I have taken a few steps to my right instead of my left, I would have been safe from lasers and stray illusions. But I, with my genial plan to use the mist battle as a distraction, just had to be stupid and run ahead to get the person in the gola mosca. I was starting to regret my decision to do that.

I could not fool infrared sensors, those weren't exactly to be fooled by illusions. However I could run ahead with an illusional shield around me while making other illusions to hide the lasers that were fired at me and their destruction. Fortunately the lasers were weaker than the lasers I was used to in my Famiglia, so deflecting it with illusions wasn't too hard. But that was only the easier part of my plan. What worried me was the _next step_ of my plan…

Taking the gola mosca apart while it was in the cage of the Varia-side while upholding my illusionary shields and making sure that no one noticed my presence or the destruction left behind at the same time. The good news of this plan was that the gola mosca was standing close enough to the cage for me to take it apart. The bad news about this plan however…

Using this many high grade illusions were giving me severe headaches. The gola mosca was easier to take apart than put together. The person inside of the robot was revealed to be the _Vongola Nono_. I had to replace the fuel, which was enough of _my_ dying will flames for the robot to function at least one day. I had to wait until the battle was over before I could pull the old man to safety…

_I should have thought more about this plan before executing it._

…

"Finally getting serious?" Mukuro grinned when the indigo pacifier started to glow, which caused the other pacifiers to glow as result. The teen materialized his trident and tapped the floor with it.

"Not even close to it." Mammon answered with mist flames surrounding their hands.

"Kufufu, you should." Mukuro chuckled darkly. He wasn't lying when he said that, because without Mammon knowing what he was doing he was molding his own flames to match the arcobaleno's flame signature. Making sure that the cursed baby would lose control of their own illusions as soon as Mukuro managed to let his flames control theirs, but the baby was making it difficult to be distracted enough for Mukuro to do it properly.

Illusions clashed and merged constantly, making one sickening scene after the other. The experiences that the illusionists created were startling realistic and yet, Mukuro couldn't help but smirk. Not only because of the horrified sounds coming from the Vongola, but also because it was _easy_.

It could have been his experience, his training with Zero in the past few days, his trident that was made flame resistant or simply because he was well prepared. It was _easy_ to fight on even grounds with the arcobaleno with illusions only.

"Really? And you call yourself one of the strongest in the world?" Mukuro chuckled when Mammon managed to overwhelm Mukuro's earlier illusion, only to hit another layer of mist flames.

"You are stronger than I thought." Mammon said instead of giving an answer. Mukuro couldn't help smirking in amusement when he realized that he lost his first advantage: underestimation. The worst enemy of any skilled illusionist. But losing this advantage made him able to move on to the next step.

Whatever Mammon was expecting Mukuro to do, was not this. Mukuro released his control on his illusion with one last burst of mist flames and rushed forwards when the arcobaleno was still distracted by surprise.

Sadly enough they reacted in time to avoid losing their control on their flame and evading the stab of Mukuro's trident.

"You…" Mammon growled when the effects of surprise wore out and the teen casually swung his trident around, continuing his attacks. "Blasphemy! An illusionist is not supposed to resort to physical fighting!"

"Oya? Why would that be if I'm both trained in mind and body?"

"The priority of an illusionist is to train the mind!"

"Exactly." Mukuro grinned. "Which means that I have an advantage, arcobaleno."

"Muu, don't think that I will be hit easily when I managed to survive a life as the neighbor of the Sinclair's." Mammon huffed as they floated out of the way from another jab with expert timing and reflexes that were unintentionally honed.

Mukuro pushed the urge to laugh down when he saw how contradicting the mist arcobaleno was. Who was the one that said that physical training is blasphemy while they were clearly trained themselves? But that wasn't the only reason for Mukuro's amusement. His second advantage was finally found out. Time for step three.

"Third path of hell."

…

The battle was pretty one sided, Reborn decided when he realized what Zero's apprentice was doing. Distracting, annoying the hell out of the mist arcobaleno with snakes and _stalling_ for an unknown reason.

Even though the brat said that he would win his battle fast… So why? Was he tricking everyone when he said that? Or did he truly mean it?

"Who would ever have thought that Mammon would have it so hard kora? At full strength even…" Collonello wondered out loud, interrupting Reborn's pondering about the stalling-matter.

"It's because of Renata." Reborn nodded.

"Renata is the very reason why I'm surprised." Collonello deadpanned. "I mean, she was the best illusionist that I've known. Even now, after all these years and she tutored Viper over there kora!"

"And Mukuro is Renata's student. She did not tutor him, she _taught_ him."

"…I thought that Renata was dead kora?"

"One more word and _you_ are dead."

…

"That is it! Fantasma!" Mammon growled as the real snakes were restraining them. Once again, Mukuro couldn't fight down the amused smirk when the lizard stopped circling above the head of the arcobaleno. It meant that Mammon was starting to fight seriously… and that they were finally distracted enough for Mukuro to take over their control.

"Kufufufu, that was easy." Mukuro began to laugh.

"Fantasma?"

"Kuhahaha. Don't bother trying, 'Ma-kun'. Once an illusionist loses their control of their own illusions they have lost." Mukuro laughed louder as he approached the restrained body of his opponent and yanked the other half of the ring from their neck. "Winning was easier than I thought."

For a second he considered finishing the baby off, to make sure that another dark stain was gone from the world. But in the end he decided against it. If he did kill 'Ma-kun', Zero would be sad and angry. Plus it wouldn't hurt to have an arcobaleno owing him a favor.

The blue haired teen glanced at the robot behind the boss of the Varia and grinned. Zero was done. They both won their battles… though the outcome of Zero's battle was more unexpected than Mukuro expected.

"I see that your plan was just like what I would have expected from you, Xanxus." Mukuro chuckled. "You truly are one of the darker greys of the mafia."

"I'm not done yet!" Mammon exclaimed.

"Oya oya? Didn't your tutor ever teach you what happens if you lost sight of your own illusions?" Mukuro asked, making Mammon wince and glance at the illusionary figure of Zero. Not that they knew that it was just an illusion though.

"…Na-She did." The smaller illusionist nodded hesitantly.

"Of course she taught you well enough for you to understand it." Mukuro huffed. "Without a doubt even. Zero wouldn't leave her students unprepared for any battle."

With those words he put the two halves of the ring back together.

"The mist does now belong to Rokudo Mukuro. With that, the winner of this battle is Rokudo Mukuro."

…

The gola mosca fired and Mammon was down. Reborn frowned at the scene and wondered if he missed something important.

The Varia left right after Mammon was shot down and didn't even listen to the speech that Reborn had prepared. Tsuna's team had won, that was sure. He had four rings in his possession against the two rings that Xanxus had, so why did Xanxus laugh them off like he was sure to win?

"We are going, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn ordered as he kicked the frozen Tsuna, who was still staring at the empty side of the gym where the Varia were before they left. The brunet gave a soft shriek as Reborn started to drag him away and started nodded hesitantly. Not before he gave one last worried glance at the gym though, but why?

…Reborn had a lot to think about.

…

"Finally." I groaned when everyone but the ones from my home finally left the gym. I had to stay next to Timoteo until the Varia, clumsily repaired gola mosca included, left the building. Keeping the both of us hidden while concealing the destructions made by lasers. It has been a harsh day and I wished that I could sleep already.

"Zero-chan! Are you alright? You're wounded!" Chrome gasped when I dropped my illusions.

"It's nothing much." I muttered as Chrome rushed to where I was sitting. "Don't worry about me, Chrome-chan, I will recover after sleeping for a bit and the mission went well. It was worth the trouble in the end."

"I didn't expect Xanxus' scheme to be so predictable." Mukuro commented as he walked to our direction as well. "Revenge could have been easier by eradicating the entire Vongola though…"

"Well… Xanxus wouldn't have been able to become the Decimo if he did." I sighed as I eyed the unconscious Vongola Nono with suspicion. "Congratulations on your victory, Mukuro."

"Kufufu, thank you." Mukuro chuckled.

"Why did you safe me?" Something invisible asked. Mukuro looked in the general direction where the voice came from and shrugged.

"You owe me now."

"Hmm, did you really think that I would leave my student like that?" I frowned as Mammon became visible again. "Plus, the gola mosca wouldn't have been able to kill you now I saved Timoteo. We had to improvise a bit."

"But-"

"Does it matter byon?" Ken interrupted Mammon. "We have more things to do than staying in this mess."

"We will be going ahead." Chikusa nodded as he and Ken carried Timoteo to our home.

"Sure." I smiled halfheartedly. Chrome helped me up and urged me forwards.

"Come on and give the reward." She smiled.

"Hmm? Reward?" I yawned.

"Kufufufu, yes. You did promise me a reward, my dearest Zero." Mukuro grinned. I blinked blankly and nodded. I remembered the reward, I'd better give it so I could sleep. Using too many high grade illusions at the same time made me exhausted, both mentally as physically.

I pulled Mukuro closer by his collar, gave him a quick peck and stumbled to the exit of the gym. Too much has happened today and I would like to think that I earned some rest.

…

Chrome squealed and beamed at the pictures she took with the camera she materialized.

Mammon could only blink in confusion and hope that a certain brother would never find out what just happened.

And Mukuro stared at the retreating back of his teacher. She probably never noticed it, but that kiss…

Was on his lips.

…

**Omake: homework**

I put the stray strand of black hair behind my right ear and smiled at my opponent.

"Are you done?"

"Nata, I really have to ask why we are playing Uno while we should be doing our homework. Which is practicing illusions, not playing Uno." Viper sighed. "Not that I'm complaining about Uno though. Uno is the only game where you don't _completely_ crush your opponents."

"Hmm, but I am practicing my illusions right now, Vi-chan." I smiled. Viper gave me an odd look and gasped in realization.

"You're cheating!"

"No, I'm not!" I protested. "I don't cheat with card games!"

"Then what are you using illusions for?"

"Have you ever noticed that we are not in my room anymore?" I pointed out. The hooded teen turned their head around and dropped their cards. We weren't in my dorm room anymore, or at least it looked like we weren't anymore. Instead, we were at my cliff.

"What the-"

"I've been doing this for a while already, Vi-chan."

"But I never noticed it!"

"Because you didn't pay attention." I pointed out. "If this was a battle between mists, you would have lost because you lost your perceptions."

"How do you lose a battle between mists?" Viper frowned.

"When you lose sight of your own illusions, you've lost your perceptions and with that… you've lost." I nodded. " So, are you up for another round for Uno?"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I bet that no one expected the kiss to be actually on the lips! Though Zero never noticed it… well we'll see what happens if she ever finds out. Yes, Mukuro was aware of Zero's plan, though not completely, and worked along with playing mind-games on Reborn! In the end, Tsuna was the only one of the Vongola's to notice the destruction of the gym. The lasers left a lot of destruction, so Hibari won't be happy XD. I'm not very good at fighting scenes… *sighs.**

**Quick replies to reviews this time (I actually have some friends to visit right now).**

**I'm really glad that everyone liked the daily life of the Sinclair's of last chapter. Whether the ghost was real or not… maybe it was kufufufu. And sister complex indeed XD.**

**I actually had a whole different thing planned for Zero and Xanxus, Nicole NightLock, so I'm afraid that that is impossible. The omake is something that I can do though… after what I had planned for them.**

**Thank you for the 300+ reviews! You guys are awesome!**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 18**

Renato frowned at his classmates for his new class. Apparently, not everyone had the affinity for dying will flames, so the class was a combination of students of various ages. He could recognize the green haired idiot, the blonde moron and the girl with the flower tattoo from his class.

Behind Renato were some faces that he recognized as Renata's sempais from the daycare center and a Chinese transfer student. And in front of him, Renato could vaguely recognize a kid who winced once he met his gaze.

Who was the kid again?

And then, in the front, were Renata and 'Vi-chan'. Renato should have expected that the kid would be in this school if their older sibling, or was it their parent, was going to be the new teacher.

Anyways, his little sister was acting suspicious. She refused to look at the back and desperately tried to keep herself hidden in her textbook. It was a mystery to her brother why she was acting like that, but he found out anyways when the break came.

The Chinese transfer student, who was pretty polite in a way, was introducing himself to his new classmates. But when he came closer to Renata, the black haired girl squeaked and tried to hide herself better in her textbook.

It didn't work too well.

So the girl resorted to something entirely else. Running to her brother.

While Renato shielded his little sister, he glared at the too friendly Chinese. He had handled guys who came to his little sister, who was too young to be in a relationship anyways, but this was a whole different situation.

This time, Renata was crushing on this guy instead of the other way around.

As Renato was glaring at the dumbfound Chinese and thinking of various ways to assassinate him, he missed some crucial stuff. Someone mentioned the 'sister complex-matter kora' and Renata was trembling and pale. Had Renato seen that, he would have noticed that the reason why Renata ran wasn't because of a crush… but because of shock, surprise and a bit of wariness for skylarks.

**Or in which Renata meets a skylark without being mentally prepared. There is a very good possibility of her banning her memories of this skylark from her mind ;p. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 42: keep calm and confront

"Are you hiding something from me, Zero?" Reborn asked when I was walking on a rocky path of the mountain where Tsuna was training. I looked at my babyfied brother on my shoulder and gave him a sheepish smile.

"No, not really. I'm just tired from the battle yesterday." I wasn't _hiding_ something from Reborn, I was desperately trying to keep the fact that the Vongola Nono was at our house and under our care a secret from Reborn. There was a small difference between hiding and desperately keeping a secret.

As a fellow mafia boss and an ally of the Vongola, I knew that I should respect Timoteo's secrets until he woke up… And as someone who had experience with children and parenting, I knew that I should let him rest before forcing him to confront Xanxus. It was for his own good to confront his son personally, even if I had to strap Nono on a chair to make sure that he won't run away.

"Why are _you _tired when it was Mukuro who fought?"

"Well..." I began hesitantly while my brains were trying to find a reasonable answer that didn't give the secret away. "I meant my battle with paperwork yesterday and not the ring battle?"

"I thought that I forbade you from doing paperwork." Reborn frowned.

"Why did you want me to help you with training Tsuna, Reborn? I thought that you had everything under control?" I asked Reborn in an attempt to escape more questions that I shouldn't be answering. My brother saw my discomfort and chose to let the matter go... for now.

"Something is preventing Tsuna's zero point breakthrough to go as it is supposed to go." Reborn explained. "Even though we did exactly what was described in A's diary."

"Hmm, so you asked for my help because I currently have the diary in possession?" I sweatdropped. "You could have asked me to lend you the book… I even brought it with me."

I would never offered lending my diary to my brother if I didn't know that every book that Reborn read was carefully memorized and never forgotten. Every single secret between the words must be analyzed before the hitman was done with reading and Reborn gave the leather bound book back to me _after_ he was done reading... Which meant that every single secret written in the diary, from training-secrets to personal secrets, were now safely stored in Reborn's memories. It was already too late to let Reborn forget about the knowledge and that was the only reason why I would let Reborn lend my old diary and Reborn only.

Plus I could trust him to return the book straight to me, unlike Talbot apparently lend it to the tutor of the next head of the Vongola. It made me wonder whether Reborn was the only one who read my diary, or more people. _I should ask Talbot the next time I see him_.

"Indeed, but then there is the matter that you have the most knowledge about dying will flames in the mafia." Reborn pointed out. "Which means that having you with us could help us more than the diary only."

"…So, the zero point breakthrough?"

"Yes."

"Hmm…" What could I remember about the training for this technique? I remembered the fact that Giotto needed a lot of concentration and that in the last time I first tried to get him to invent this technique, a mountain was almost burned off… _And it would have if I wasn't there to extinguish the concentrated sky flames._

"We're here." Reborn announced and I returned to present time. Tsuna was standing in a very familiar stance and breathing evenly in concentration while facing the opposite direction from where Reborn and I were standing. Basil was there as well, he probably played my old role as the firefighter when the mountain would start to burn…

Basil noticed us coming closer before Tsuna did and nodded nervously.

"Good morning, Zero-dono. Welcome back, Reborn-dono"

"Good morning, Basil-san." I smiled before turning my attention to Tsuna…

The first thing I noticed that he looked a lot like Giotto in his dying will mode. Especially his eyes, now they were the color of the sunset as well. It gave me a rush of nostalgia and made me realize again, how much Giotto and Tsuna were alike and yet totally different.

The second thing I noticed was the same thing that I noticed a long while ago, but where I couldn't put my finger on back then. Something about Tsuna bothered me, his dying will flames bothered me and something told me that this was the reaon why the training for the zero point breakthrough didn't give the results it was supposed to give.

"Can you see what is wrong?" Reborn asked after letting me stare at his student and think for a few minutes.

"I don't know." I muttered. From this distance, I could sense that something was wrong, but not _what_ was wrong. Even when I walked closer to Tsuna, I couldn't figure out what was bothering me about the concentrated sky flames. Maybe I should… I shook my head at the thought that invaded my mind, which was a very stupid plan… but the only plan that came to my mind that would actually work. I sighed at my lack of imagination when I couldn't think of an alternative plan and walked even closer to Tsuna. The teen blinked in confusion when I walked in his personal space and gave me a confused smile.

A smile that disappeared as soon as I put my hand in the dying will flame on his forehead.

"Hieee?! What are you doing, Zero?!" Tsuna exclaimed as he dropped his dying will mode, but I didn't pay attention to the teen that grabbed my burned hand and inspected it. I was busy with trying to stay calm and with hoping that I felt it wrong…

But I definitely felt it right. The dying will flames of the sky weren't supposed to burn like that, even though they were definitely concentrated in the right way. Concentrated sky flames were supposed to feel… different from what I felt from the flames on Tsuna's forehead. Painful, but in a more free way than this caged pain.

"Your flames are sealed." I muttered in disbelieve when I realized what the weird tingling sensation behind the usual burning feeling of concentrated sky flames on my almost healed hand was. A sensation that was so faint that it had to mean that Tsuna had been sealed for a long while. For too long.

"W-what?" Tsuna asked between blowing on the healing burns on my hand in an unsuccessful attempt to lessen the pain and looking at my worried expression with worry.

"Your flames are sealed." I repeated, louder this time. Too soft for my voice to give in, but loud enough for Reborn and Basil to hear my words as well. Old memories of lessons about sealing flames entered my mind while the back of my hand connected the faint flame signature that didn't belong to Tsuna to a face and name. A familiar face and name, one that I saw very recently.

"Can you undo it?" Reborn asked.

"No, only the person who sealed it can undo it."

"Dost thou know who did it?" Basil asked warily.

"…Timoteo di Vongola." I whispered, not trusting my voice to stay calm if I said it in the normal volume. "Timoteo di Vongola sealed Tsuna's dying will flames."

"Then we art doomed." The dark blonde teen frowned."Timoteo-dono is in Italy." I shook my head slowly and looked at Tsuna.

"Follow me." I whispered as I grabbed his hand that was still holding mine to inspect and dragged him to the general direction of my home. Fellow mafia boss or not, I had a few personal things to _ask_ the ninth and I would make sure that he would talk.

As I dragged Tsuna along and leading Reborn and Basil to the green house where the ninth boss of the Vongola was, I tried to stay calm by making a mental list of things that I had to ask the mafia boss and demands I would have to make. A list that grew longer and less relevant with every second that passed, but one question was repeatedly added to the mental list.

_Why did Nono seal Tsuna's flames?"_

Did the man even understand what sealing flames meant? Dying will flames are part of the soul. They are the embodiment of determination and the fuel to motivation and by sealing that, Timoteo actually _crippled_ Tsuna. Did Timoteo know that he crippled a child?

I had to take a few deep breaths to stay calm and stop myself from _running_ further. I was taught that sealing dying will flames wasn't a pleasant thing and that it could destroy life's... Tsuna was lucky that he was probably sealed in his learning phase so he could learn how to live without his flames or he wouldn't be able to do _anything_ right now…

_Or unlucky because Tsuna had to live without a part of his soul for so long._

It didn't take much longer before we reached the green building after those thoughts. My anger spurred me on to almost run down the many stairs to find the room where Timoteo was and to slam the door open.

"…Good morning, Timoteo." I greeted surprised as the sound of the door slamming open echoed through the green themed room. To my surprise, the elderly man was actually awake even though the diagnostics stated that he needed twenty four hours more sleep than this to open his eyes. But Timoteo di Vongola was clearly awake, sitting upright even.

"…Good morning, Zero, Reborn, Basil, Tsuna." Timoteo greeted equally surprised when the echoes were faded away.

"…Care to explain why the ninth boss of the Vongola is in your basement, Zero?" Reborn asked, just as surprised as us.

…

Everything that happened in the last half hour passed like a blur to Tsuna. From the moment that he saw Zero putting her hand in his dying will flame, to the moment that he was pulled into green room in one of Zero's basements and him getting... unsealed? The teen wasn't sure what was more confusing, the fact that the ninth boss was the one who Zero managed to safe last night amidst the destructions she made, the fact that the albino girl didn't inform her brother that the ninth was in her basement or the fact that his dying will flames were sealed.

And now, he found himself in another room with Basil as Zero, Reborn and Nono were discussing something in the room next-door.

"Art thou feeling better, Sawada-dono?" Basil asked concerned.

"Honestly? I'm not really sure." Tsuna smiled sheepishly. After unsealing his flames, Tsuna didn't get the feeling that he felt better or stronger. Just… the same old him and it confused him. From how Zero reacted he thought that sealing his flames and unsealing them would create huge differences.

"Maybe we shouldn't have trusted her words." Basil muttered under his breath, but Tsuna caught it anyways.

"A-are you talking about Zero, Basil-kun?" The brunet asked. "Don't worry about her, we can trust her."

"I'm not entirely sure of that." Basil confessed hesitantly as he looked at the wall that connected this room to the next room. "Mists art good deceivers and they can't be trust'd."

"We can trust her." Tsuna retorted too quickly. A small blush formed on his face as he realized how rash he sounded and tried to recall the reasons he could use to explain his reaction. "It's true that Zero has a… hidden agenda so now and then, but she is doing everything for her family and friends. Maybe she ends up betraying our trust by doing something unannounced, but it always ended up being something that helped us out a lot. The destructions last night that ended up with saving the ninth, as an example. Or it ends up being a result of a misunderstanding. Like last time with Mukuro…"

Tsuna stopped smiling when he remembered the reward that Zero promised her student, he would have to ask her what exactly happened to that kiss soon… preferably when Reborn wasn't in the vicinity. Tsuna did not like the idea of being pulled in the mess of a brother and... Mukuro. If there wasn't a chance, no matter how slim it might be, Tsuna would have left the matter to Reborn. But knowing that he would be pulled in this matter as soon as Reborn found out, Tsuna decided to confront the girl personally before maybe telling Reborn. It all depended on the answer that Zero would give him... if she would answer him of course.

"But I trust her. _Reborn_ trusts her. And the ninth… probably as well." Tsuna admitted. "Despite her weird tendency to appear out of nowhere and her… weird definitions of normal, she is definitely one of the most trustworthy persons I know. Not that I know so many people to begin with, though." Tsuna added sheepishly.

The teen remembered how small the number of people he actually knew was before Reborn and his chaos came. Back then, his life revolved around his mother and Kyoko back then… Now he had friends and other people he could count on. He only wished that they weren't so weird or destructive… or part of the mafia. Even Zero, the most sane one of his friends was part of the mafia. A mafia _boss_ even, but Tsuna was glad that he knew the girl despite that little fact.

"She is different from the girls I know, sane, calmer and at times knowledgeable. Almost experienced even, it's like she knows what to do in almost every situation."

"She sounds like she thinks a lot about her actions before acting." Basil mused.

"Not really… Sometimes I think that Zero could be a bit too rash. She jumps into action while she is clearly not strong enough to do it on her own and still succeed in her actions. Now I'm thinking about it, she is ranked as the first on the ranking of 'mafia members who would do something irresponsible to safe someone' by Fuuta a while ago." Tsuna finished.

"…The way thou art talking about Zero-dono showeth me that thee cares for her." Basil smiled at the changed expression of the mafia heir. The smile that dropped in the middle of the story returned as Tsuna continued and grew softer, but warmer with each recalled memory.

"Of course I do, she is my friend after all!" Tsuna smiled.

"Not in that way, Sawada-dono." Basil sighed. "Thou talks about Zero-dono like she is important to thee."

"W-what?"

"We are done." Zero announced as she opened the door, interrupting the conversation.

"Zero is going to train you for a little bit Dame-Tsuna- …Zero. Care to explain why the mist of the Varia is in your basement as well?"

"Hmm? Ma-kun?" Zero smiled sheepishly. "Well…"

"I've been here for quite a while already." Mammon stated. Tsuna and Basil almost jumped in surprise when the baby appeared out of nowhere and stared at the cup of hot chocolate in the hands of said baby in sheer bewilderment. How long had the table, chairs and mist arcobaleno been here?

"We kind of saved Ma-kun last night." Zero confessed sheepishly.

"And you let them stay in your basement without any measure to prevent their escape?" Reborn frowned.

"Hmm, actually… Ma-kun has a massive debt to me that can be repaid without money if they stay in the house."

"And how exactly did you manage that?"

"Card games." Mammon answered the question of their fellow arcobaleno. "I know that it was stupid of me to play with Zero, but try to say no to her when she is using _that_ smile."

"...That is a cruel thing to do, Zero." Reborn winced.

"It was my best option to keep Ma-kun in here without them trying to escape." Zero shrugged. "You know how good mists are in escaping imprisonment if they want to. So I created a reason for Ma-kun to actually _want_ to stay."

"Muu... I'm actually thinking about actually _paying_ you the money to escape this madness now, Nata. Staying here and listening to the conversations in this house makes me feel like your dearest brother will be destroying the world soon like I feared he would as soon as you got a boyfriend."

…

**Omake: the legacy of Sinclair tutors**

A lot had happened in the life of Timoteo for Vongola, which is nothing strange since he was the boss of the most powerful Famiglia and trained by a Sinclair. Two of them even. Serena Sinclair and Renatus Sinclair were the most terrifying tutors one could imagine and especially when they worked together. And one wasn't even a Sinclair by blood! Timoteo liked to think that he was one of the few non-Sinclair's who stayed sane after being taught by a Sinclair, like Shamal and the man who looked after his health after he woke up in the unknown green room. He recognized the hardened look in their eyes as someone who was trained by a Sinclair.

But while the training that the Sinclair couple gave him was harsh and nearly impossible like every training that a Sinclair gave, it was the best training he could have wished for since it prepared him for the harsh reality of the life of a Mafiosi. Even their children taught him a lot... even though their lessons were unasked for.

The different-kinds-of-smiling lessons given by both the siblings were useful, but the you-can-never-win-this-card-game lessons given by the younger sibling? Timoteo was still trying to get over the fact that the daughter of his tutors could win every card game they played. But at least that was better than the training regime he got from his official tutors. Climbing mountains without aids was a living hell that left scars on his soul, after completing the training he vowed to never approach mountains again.

Anyways, a lot has happened in his long life, but what happened in the last few weeks? Months? He wasn't sure for how long he was out, but the events in the last period was so unexpected that Timoteo didn't know whether he should be glad that his tutors were gone or despair that they were gone. What happened between his son and him would made them laugh at him and even ridicule him, but htey would have helped him. They would have told him what to do in a situation like this.

Now, the closest thing he had to his tutors was the arcobaleno who he assigned to tutor his heir. The arcobaleno who was currently debating whether to help him or to join the other mafia boss to scold him. He seemed to settle on enjoying Timoteo's suffering though.

Zero Estraneo was scary when she wanted to be and the worst thing was that she reminded him so much of his former tutors while she was scolding him. Timoteo found himself listening attentively to the girl who had to be several decades younger than him and couldn't help but think that she had to be a long lost member of the Sinclair's.

He didn't know how close to the truth he was with that thought.

"Never seal flames again." Zero finished and Timoteo nodded numbly. The heavy air that prevented Timoteo from breathing normally lifted as fast as it appeared and the girl gave the man a flowery-sparkly smile before moving to leave the green room for... another green room.

"What was that?" Timoteo breathed when the albino girl was out of hearing range. Reborn gave him a pointed look before pulling his fedora over his eyes and smirking.

"The legacy of a Sinclair."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I was lucky that I uploaded this chapter on this site beforehand, because my computer decided to give up on me and crash (you served me well in the last seven years, RIP my dearest computer). Another thing I'm thankful for is the fact that I mostly write my plot on oldfashioned paper, so I should be able to continue writing this fic with that and the laptop of my sister (that I decided to 'borrow' to update this fic). I wasn't entirely satisfied with this chapter, but I don't know why and this chapter does contain some important information for this and future arcs, so I posted it anyways. I used a shakespearean translator for Basil's speech by the way, it's useful but very confusing at times. Onwards to answers of the questions in the reviews!**

**to ****Reaper Senpai, I'm really glad that someone realized that the guy that happened to hit on Renata was the very same person who winced :D! (I will leave the identity of every side-characters in the daily life of the Sinclair's to the imagination of the readers, but that doesn't stop me from implying who they actually are ;P)**

**That is right, Cogan, I happened to have some time to draw back then and I thought: why not?**

**Fon is someone I considered pairing with Zero a while ago, ****Tsukiyomi-Hio, but the plot that I had planned would be messed up if I went with it so I abandoned the thought after thinking a lot about it (it was the same situation for Hibari)...**

**The answer is simple, ADDBaby: no one :P.**

**I have a lot planned, ****Seere Klein, kufufufufu ;).**

**Wao, last chapter got a lot of reviews. Thank you all for reviewing, especially since I was actually pretty unsure if the quality of the Sinclairs was good enough! But the reviews proved me otherwise and made me think of a very important question:  
****After all these chapters, who do you ship Zero with?  
(just trying to get insight of my readers' shippingtastes as a fellow shipper and a very bad fanfic writer who can't decide on the pairing) Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 43: action and reaction

"So, you got it?" I smiled at the two bodies on the floor, with one of the two being completely wiped out and with the other being unconscious. Combining the Sinclair-training and my own training style was more productive than I thought. With my own style, even with involving illusion that defied the laws of time, the training would take weeks in the real world. Months even in Giotto's case, but back then I wasn't as experienced as I was now.

Somehow with Reborn assisting in the training regime, or was it me who assisted him, the training managed to end in just a few hours. Maybe the fact that Reborn trained Tsuna before this as well had helped with the fast process, but even then it was a small miracle that Tsuna managed to learn so much in such little time.

Maybe I should use the Sinclair style of training more often in combination with my own.

I guessed that Basil wasn't used to Sinclair-style training yet, so I didn't blame the teen for passing out after Reborn and I were done. The Sinclair style was really brutal if one wasn't used to it. Reborn and I were fully aware of that, we were both subjected to it after all.

"Yes." Tsuna, the one who was conscious, groaned. "How do you know so much about the zero point breakthrough, Zero?"

"Hmm?"

"I wanted to ask that as well." Reborn nodded from my shoulder. "Sure, we both trained Tsuna together today, but no training should have brought these results. Even with time ascending illusions."

"Hmm, I was surprised that combining our teaching styles gave these results as well." I nodded in agreement.

"That was not what I meant, Zero." Reborn sighed. "Your training style involves using illusions to train the mind and eventually the body by throwing illusions and making your students dodge or fight it, right?"

"Yes?"

"This training is usually used for illusionists, because it helps with mental training. You could almost say that it gives the illusionist a boost in mental capabilities."

"…That is indeed the goal of my training?" I sweatdropped. What was Reborn trying to say with this monologue?

"How could you have known that this boost could be applied to the capabilities of the zero point breakthrough as well, even though no one had tried it before in the entire history of the Vongola?"

"It's a funny story kufufufu…"

"Answer already, Zero."

"Well, the answer is easy." I smiled innocently. "This is how I always trained my students, we just happened to be lucky that the boost applied to the zero point breakthrough as well. You can ask Ma-kun if you don't believe that this is how I teach. You could have even asked Goku-chan or Muku-chan if they were here, but I don't know where Goku-chan is and Muku-chan is helping me out with training Chrome-chan for a bit."

I would have been training my daughter myself if Reborn didn't call me out, but he did. So when I was called, I asked Mukuro to take over the training and go to the cloud battle without me since I inevitably would have to go there myself.

The blank look on my brother's face told me that, despite the fact that he believed me, he suspected that there was something more behind the truth that I told him. And I couldn't blame him because it was true. There truly was something more behind it, but I wasn't planning on telling anyone that I was the tutor of the one and only person who invented the zero point breakthrough.

"It makes sense though, now I think about it." Ma-kun frowned within the cage they were forced in by my dearest brother. My protests about caging Mammon were ignored because Reborn didn't want the mist arcobaleno to walk around freely in my house without restrictions and apparently we still had a falme-restraining cage somewhere in the storage basement. I really needed to ask Verde what he was going to do with a cage that could hold back dying will flames.

"What?" Reborn ordered.

"Dying will flames are the physical manifestation of determination, which is a mental skill." Mammon explained. "So it makes sense that this training could boost the capabilities of any attack that involves dying will flames."

"We were lucky that we stumbled across this." I smiled at my insiders joke. We were lucky that I literally happened to stumble across this around four hundred years ago when I was still teaching Giotto with his zero point breakthrough.

Or actually, it was Giotto who stumbled and me who realized it and used it for his training… and it was me who realized that it could be too dangerous to write it down in my diary. With the simple training that should boost every skill that involved dying will flames being known to everyone who could read my diary, the chance of encountering stronger enemies was too big to even consider writing it down.

Especially back then, four hundred years ago.

"Besides, my name isn't Zero for no reason. Training people for the zero point breakthrough could actually be my destiny kufufufu."

…

Finding the battlefield wasn't too difficult since I could sense the presences of the rings, but running away from it proved to be more difficult than that.

When we arrived in the place where I sensed the rings, Hibari just finished his battle and he was furious. Not angry, but absolutely furious. And now I was looking properly… Xanxus was furious as well.

"Where is the ninth?!"

"I will bite you to death for destroying my school."

"…Damn it, I forgot to repair the gym." I muttered and all the eyes were turned to us. Now I was thinking about it, saying that out loud wasn't my best idea ever.

The bloodthirsty expression on Hibari's face, that was definitely aimed at me, was unnerving and in the back of my mind I wished that I repaired the destructed gym that I left behind last night. Would it be too late to offer repairing it now? According to the expression on Hibari's face, the answer was yes.

And Hibari wasn't the only person with a bloodthirsty expression.

"What is _he_ doing with you, brat?" Xanxus growled at me, though he was looking at the man next to me. Timoteo di Vongola was not happy with being strapped to a wheelchair and with being confronted by his son.

"Xanxus-"

"Don't 'Xanxus' me!" The scarred man snarled at the older man in the wheelchair.

"I'll bite you to death."

"M-maybe later Hibari-san."

"Oya oya, who is going to bite who?"

"What is the ninth doing there with you, midget?"

"Maa maa, let's calm down, everyone."

"What is EXTREMELY going in here?!"

"Let's talk about it, son."

"Don't you dare to call me your son!"

"Rabbit-"

"This is not the time for this!" Tsuna exclaimed, catching the full attention of everyone who was gathered in the school ground. The blush on his face revealed that the words accidentally escaped his lips, but Tsuna did deserve some credit for calming the commotion down and not running away. I could see that the poor teen really wanted to run though.

"Actually, this is exactly the time for this." I disagreed after a small moment of silence, this was the perfect time for settling family matters and solving this conflict. The matter about destroying the gym however was another story that I'd rather avoid.

"Who are you?"

"She is the fish." Mammon answered Xanxus' question for me.

"Excuse me?" Chris, who was incidentally carrying Mammon's cage around, asked.

"It's a long story…" I sweatdropped.

"A long story involving being kidnapped." Reborn helpfully informed the grey haired uncle who deadpanned at the mention of me being kidnapped.

"Milan?"

"Milan." I nodded.

"Then these guys did not only steal the blueprints, but kidnapped Zero-sama as well?" Seth asked. I looked at my other uncle who was supposed to push the wheelchair of the ninth Vongola boss around, but who currently forgot about the older man in favor of inspecting the mechanical mess that was once the gola mosca.

I did not like the look that both my uncles shared at the moment.

"So this brat is the fish." Xanxus stated. "Or should I be calling you Hibari-chan?"

Running away was easier said than done.

…

It were my centuries old experiences and survival instincts that made me use illusions to deflect the incoming attack. Deflecting, not blocking because even my subconsciousness knew that blocking an attack from a skylark would end up badly with broken bones and more. I had seen worse things happen that involved being attacked by skylarks.

The strong hit of the tonfa that I deflected on pure instinct made my arms numb enough to almost drop the illusionary weapons that I materialized, but somehow I managed to grasp my hands around the hilts tighter. I expected another incoming attack as soon as Hibari turned around, but instead of an attack I received a long stare with a hint of… something in his eyes that was aimed at my hands. Or rather, at the illusionary weapons that I was clutching.

And then, with growing horror, I noticed which weapons I had materialized and why Hibari was staring at them. The last weapons that I managed to catch a glimpse of.

Tonfa's.

Again, it was only thanks to instincts and experience that I managed to deflect a hit from Hibari. This time, I managed to move along with the attack so the full impact on my arms were lessened. It still hurt like hell though. Two hits, after only two hits I could already see that I was doomed to lose and be beaten by a skylark.

I had to escape.

But escaping from the fight was easier said than done, almost impossible even. It would have been completely impossible without mist flames to hide in… And I was fortunate enough to have mist flames and experience with fighting against skylarks. It was experience that formulated strategies that were very outdated, but it worked back then and it should be very useful in a situation like this.

First step: misdirect. Which meant that I had to use my dying will flames to create Illusionary mist to hide in.

Second step: use the distraction to my advantage… or in other words: run. Run as fast as possible and hide behind the strongest person that I could find at the moment.

"I swear that I will repair the gym!" I shouted once I was safely hiding behind Reborn.

"What are you talking about?" Reborn whispered.

"Well, when I was helping Timoteo last night I had to work _during_ the battle and you know what the Cervello said about infra-red lasers. Illusions can fool a lot, but fooling something that senses heat is impossible. Hell, I was using dying will flames, flames radiate heat!" I whispered back while Hibari was ominously walking closer in a tormenting slow pace.

Call it survival instincts or recently-awakened-skylark instincts, but my arms involuntarily rose to my chest as the raven haired teen continued walking closer even when I was standing behind the number one hitman in the world. A stupid action that made me show off the illusionary tonfa's again.

Really, why hadn't I changed the illusion yet?

The hint of something, that was now identified as dark interest, was now more prominent as the prefect inspected the replicas of his weapons in my hands. And then he did something that was worse than being beaten by a skylark. He grinned and nodded in appreciation.

"You need to train more, rabbit. A Hibari can't be weak." Hibari stated before casually walking away. "And repair the school."

"…R-Reborn. Did just h-happen what I feared that just happened?" I voiced my confused thoughts that made absolutely no sense, but my brother seemed to understand what I just meant.

"I think… that you are a honorary member of the Hibari family now." Reborn nodded.

"I-I feared so…"

"_You_ meddled with the gola mosca, trash?"

"Oya, what did he mean with _Hibari_-chan, Zero?"

Honestly, I couldn't decide who was more frightening at the moment, Mukuro or Xanxus. Maybe Hibari numbed my ability to decide what fear was right now.

"Decline the offer, baka-Zero."

Nevermind, I could still feel fear properly.

…

If I had to use one word to describe the situation right now, the word would definitely be Reborn's favorite word.

Chaos.

Maybe _organized_ chaos, since nothing was destroyed yet and because no one was fighting. But seeing the fury in the eyes of the scarred man, I realized that the 'organized' part of the chaos was going to disappear soon if I didn't explain the situation.

"A few months ago, the original blueprints of an old military weapon was stolen from the hidden base of the Neo Estraneo Famiglia. Blueprints that was obtained _legally_ by the said Famiglia and therefore, the gola mosca rightfully belong to the Neo Estraneo." I stated, feeling that the numbness was slowly being replaced by the feeling of responsibility.

"So what, brat?" Xanxus scowled.

"I am Estraneo Zero, the Neo Estraneo Primo." I flower-smiled. "It is within my authority to meddle with the gola mosca since it officially belongs to us. I won't blame you for stealing the blueprints, Xanxus-san. Kidnapping the Vongola ninth and using him as fuel, however, is something that I couldn't let go… especially since he is your father."

Xanxus laughed in response.

…

**Omake: the struggles of very tired men**

"I won't blame you for stealing the blueprints, Xanxus-san." Zero said and her two uncles sighed simultaneously. They knew how much trouble the robbery of the Neo Estraneo base caused since they were affected by it as well, so it did not satisfy them that Zero didn't blame the boss of the perpetrators.

"Zero shouldn't have said that." Chris groaned, remembering the chaos that followed when the entire Famiglia was in disarray. The hidden base was supposed to be hidden after all, so that was the first time that an outsider managed to get in. And they were _robbed_. The chaos was justified and that was the worst part.

"I think that Zero-sama has more things to think about right now." Joseph grimaced. "Otherwise she wouldn't have forgiven the man for breaking in… and kidnapping her."

"His group kidnapped her, right?"

"The bastards."

"Do you think that this is the time to call _him_?"

"Do you think that he will arrive in time?"

"We belong to a Famiglia with the most crazy inventors of this century, what do you think."

"…He will definitely get here in time." Joseph nodded.

Zero was right by thinking that she did not like look that both her uncles shared at the moment they found out that the Varia kidnapped her. It was the same look they shared right now after all.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**We are nearing the end of the Varia arc and sadly enough, I am nearing the limit of being able to update regularly. With all the Christmas presents I still have to make (yes, **_**make**_** not buy) and the projects I have to do for school, it is impossible to update weekly. Plus, I just began another fanfic, but that is a different story. Zero being a honorary member of the Hibari family is not supposed to be read as a proposal or anything like that, just that Hibari thinks that Zero is useful (or at least her weapons are)**

**Thanks for the reviews and the answers on my question! It seems that a lot of people ship Mukuro and Zero or Tsuna and Zero and since it is my responsibility as a writer, I will be trying to make a decision in pairings before the fic has ended. No promises though, since I'm not responsible at all. ( I do have some stuff planned for the future arc though. Correction, I have **_**a lot**_** of stuff planned for the future arc)**

**As for the possible pairings: Tsuna and Mukuro are on the top of my list, but for reasons Byakuran is on the list as well. The rest… Idk? We'll see as the story continues.**

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review. **

**Doubleyy out**


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter 44: family ties

"…Why is he laughing like that?" Tsuna asked nervously when Xanxus simply didn't stop laughing mirthlessly.

"I wish I knew." I frowned while I slowly inched away from the scarred man. In my many life's, I had only seen a few madmen laughing like this and it never meant well for me. For an example: Birds laughed like that before everything went downwards...

"You wish you knew?" Xanxus asked. His laughter stopped in an instant and dreaded silence filled the school field as the boss of the Varia stared right in my eyes. "How can a brat like you understand what I have been through? How I felt when I discovered that my entire life was a fucking _lie_. And you _wish_ you knew?"

"Stop Xanxus-" Timoteo tried, but his son didn't let him finish.

"You, _you_ all of all people have no rights to stop me." Xanxus growled. "You left me to rot in an imprisonment worse than the Vindicare. Frozen solid in the fucking basement!"

"Frozen?" Tsuna asked as he visibly paled. "Don't tell me…"

"The zero point breakthrough." I finished for him in the same horrified tone. The technique that Tsuna managed to master today was the technique that froze Xanxus. The technique that Giotto invented to protect civilians was the technique that Timoteo used to imprison Xanxus. More scars caused by being frozen by the zero point breakthrough appeared on the face of the Varia boss and I could only wonder how he survived being caught in a technique like that.

Or _why_ he was caught in it to begin with.

"Eight years." Xanxus growled. "Eight fucking years I've been frozen because of a _lie_."

"You harmed my Famiglia with your coup d'état, Xanxus." Timoteo reasoned.

"Famiglia over family, isn't it?" The scarred man began. "Or was it because I'm not your son by blood."

…_What?_ The last sentence made me gape openly at the scene of a verbal fight between father and son- no, _adopted_ son. The shock that paralyzed my body for a small moment made me realize how stupid I actually was. How I was able to see that Xanxus missed the 'Vongola element' and yet continue thinking that he was related to Giotto or Ricardo. Maybe it was because of his resemblance to Ricardo.

I managed to close my mouth and steal a glance of the expression on Chrome's face without anyone really noticing. I adopted Chrome, so I could probably understand the feelings of Timoteo about his son… but why was their relationship like this? I couldn't exactly see Chrome act like this to me and I simply couldn't imagine anything that could cause the relationship between us to turn into… _that_.

"You lied to me and destroyed everything I lived for!"

"I just wanted to keep you safe."

"Safe? Why would scum like you keep me safe?"

"You are my son Xa-"

"You adopted me out of pity."

"I didn't do it out of pi-"

"And yet, I only found out that I was adopted when I read that fucking diary. How wasn't it out of pity if you couldn't simply tell me that I was adopted?!"

"Xan-"

"Wait a second." I decided to interrupt. "Are you guys telling me that everything here… happened only because you didn't tell your son that he was adopted, Timoteo?"

"I never wished for this to happen!" Timoteo exclaimed. "It's true that I adopted you, Xanxus, but I didn't do it out of pity!"

"Liar." Xanxus managed to say before his anger took him over and he pulled his guns out of their holsters. And yet, even though the action was fast, he never managed to do more than grabbing the weapons and aiming them at the ninth boss of the Vongola.

I wasn't sure what made Xanxus cease his attack, my sharp illusionary blades that was aimed at him or maybe the green gun that Reborn aimed at him, but it did manage to make Xanxus freeze his movements and I should be grateful for that. If it didn't stop him, I was afraid that I had to use some of the stronger illusions to stop him and I wasn't sure if I would be able to control it when I was feeling as conflicted as I was now.

I glanced at my brother in the corner of my eyes and saw he was feeling as conflicted as I was. We both grew up in an environment that thought us that family was everything, so this fight kind of conflicted with everything we grew up with. After a long moment of communicating about our next action with our eyes, my brother hesitantly gestured me to go first. He understood that I had more to ask than him at the moment.

"You guys are telling me… that everyone who was hurt. That every destroyed property and being reminded of old trauma's was only because no one informed this guy that he was adopted?" I asked grimly after nodding a silent thanks to my brother.

"Ze-"

"Please, Timoteo." I frowned at the man. "I want the truth. Was Lambo sent to the hospital because of a _misunderstanding_?"

"You should answer her, Timoteo." Reborn added helpfully. "You tell her your side of the story, or I'll tell the side of the story I gathered. Which could be very different from your story, if I may add."

"…I adopted Xanxus, not out of pity but because I saw potential in the eyes of the boy." Timoteo answered hesitantly. "I was fully intent on raising Xanxus as my own son and with my three other sons still alive, I didn't have to worry about him having to take over the family. Xanxus could have been the head of the CEDEF or Varia instead and I-"

"You were afraid." I finished the sentence, having heard enough. "You were afraid of your son finding out that you weren't his real father and his reaction. That you were a completely different person from who he thought that you were… so you hid the truth."

"You. Know. Nothing." Xanxus growled. "How can a brat like you understand the matters between us?"

"Do you think that I can't understand?" I muttered to myself. No one _really_ knew, but I understood everything of what I just said. How could it be any different with having lived so many times? How could I have told my loved ones that I was… not exactly the one they thought me to be and yet exactly the same person? I could _perfectly_ understand Timoteo's feelings, he did the same thing as me to keep his family, his loved ones, happy.

Keeping secrets from the ones he loved.

But when I looked at Xanxus, I could kind of understand why he was angry. Who wouldn't be after finding out that he was adopted in that way? It would be the same as me finding out that I wasn't related by my grandfather, the only person who truly loved me in my younger years of my first life, by reading his diary. It would feel like he was too ashamed of the fact that I was adopted to tell me face to face and-

I shook some confusing and unwanted thoughts away and looked in the eyes of the scarred man. Even though I could understand most of his feelings, I couldn't bring myself to understand why he would want to overthrow his family. And yet, somehow, I did understand even though I didn't want to... Why was my life so complicated? And with 'my life' I meant my current life. Really, I couldn't remember Ricardo doing anything like this in my first life-

"…You are related to Michelina." I realized while I was thinking about my first life.

"…Who?" Reborn frowned at me without losing his aim on Xanxus with Leon.

"Rica- Secondo's half-sister."

"His… what?" Timoteo asked incredulously.

"Hmm, did you know that Ricardo was related to Giotto on his mother's side? His mother married a man who already had a daughter and well… Ricardo probably changed his last name when he inherited the Vongola from Giotto, his cousin." I explained.

"…I almost forgot how much of a nerd you are when it concerns history." Reborn sighed.

"Do you believe this?" Nono asked Reborn. The hitman gave an almost unreadable look to the elderly man and nodded as seriously as he could.

"The only question that I still have is how you connected Xanxus to this… Michelina, Zero." Reborn added.

"Well…" I smiled sheepishly. "Michelina is a little bit… she has some issues with- hmm how can I explain it properly?"

"Just say it, Zero."

"Apart from resembling Ricardo... she is a jealous type." I began hesitantly. "And pretty rash, she often does things without thinking too much about it which caused people to misunderstand most of her actions in the end. A confession? It turned into something entirely else that almost ended up just like the ring battles. Please don't ask me what happened, it was pretty embarrassing for both sides of the story and the matter was solved just in time. Hmm, now I'm thinking about it, I remember her having a fathercomple-"

"…What are you implying, brat?" Xanxus growled.

"That you're a jealous misunderstood little brat with a fathercomplex." Mukuro chuckled.

"N-no." I spluttered. "I tried to say that you reminded me of her and that you're probably related to her since you're so alike… and that you're related to Timoteo by extension!"

"That doesn't make the situation any better." Reborn whispered to me.

…

When everyone was paying attention to me instead of Xanxus, he took his chance to fire twice without being harmed too much by the sharp illusions I set up. Like I expected, one shot was clearly aimed at Timoteo. But since I was trying to warn the ninth boss of the Vongola, I couldn't see where the other shot was aimed at until it was almost too late.

Even though my survival instincts were honed over time, I completely missed the fact that the second shot was aimed at _me_. When I finally noticed the concentrated burst of wrath flames that were soaring towards me, I couldn't get out of the way in time anymore. Instead, I raised an impromptu illusionary shield and braced myself for the impact because I didn't have enough time to raise a proper shield.

An impact that came from the wrong direction in the end. It all happened in a blur. One moment I raised a thin but strong shield of mist flames and the other I was on the ground, a few meters away from the shield. Apart from the dull pain that came from being tackled, I didn't feel other pain since I was carefully shielded with strong arms that carefully protected me from the fall.

"Oya oya, it's not like you to be so careless, my dearest Zero." Mukuro stated after he somehow managed to tackle me away from the dying will flames.

"Well, I my survival instincts were probably still numb from what happened with Hibari-san." I smiled sheepishly. "But that aside, I did react in time to raise a shield?"

"That doesn't make it much better." Mukuro sighed before letting me go, standing up and offering me a hand. "Remember, my dearest Zero. Until I have conquered you, no one may win you over. May it be in a fight or in anything else."

"I'm not planning on losing to anyone anytime soon." I smiled as I accepted the help to stand up.

"I know and that is why I'm patiently waiting until I can win you over." Mukuro chuckled.

I chuckled as well before looking at the spot where the ninth boss of the Vongola had been before I was tackled. Tsuna was standing in front of the older man in a stance that looked like the stance for the zero point breakthrough, but definitely wasn't.

"It's happening again."

"What is happening again?" Mukuro asked.

"The same thing before Giotto invented the zero point breakthrough." I smiled softly. "Tsuna is creating his own technique."

…

If he didn't notice Mukuro running to Zero, Tsuna wouldn't have been able to react in time to safe the ninth boss of the Vongola. But fortunately, the voice in the back of his head managed to warn him in time to take an unfamiliar stance in front of Timoteo di Vongola instead of Zero Estraneo.

It felt weird when Tsuna was hit with the flames of wrath, not because he got the pain that he expected but because of the sudden power that surged through his entire body instead of the pain. As sudden as the new feeling of power appeared, it changed into a more familiar feeling. The feeling that Tsuna got after being shot with a dying will bullet.

"What did you do, trash?" Xanxus growled.

"Stopping you from making a huge mistake." Tsuna answered with the bravery that he never expected to have. "This is your father, Xanxus. Adopted or not, he is your family and you shouldn't hurt your family."

"Shut up! He isn't my family at all!"

"Hmm, actually you are related to him… probably." Zero sighed. "I wasn't lying when I said that Secondo had an older half-sister. You're most likely her descendant, Xanxus."

"Shut up scum!"

"I'd like to request to stop calling our boss scum, brat! How dare you to-" Tsuna heard Christiano shout somewhere in the distance, but he decided to ignore that.

"It's over, Xanxus. You've lost." Tsuna stated.

"Lost what?" Xanxus scowled.

"A battle that shouldn't have been allowed to take place." Zero answered before deciding to dissolve the illusions around Xanxus, allowing the man to move around normally again. "Someone without the Vongola blood can't inherit the Vongola, Xanxus. And the fact that you are probably Michelina's descendent doesn't change the fact that you're unable to inherit the Vongola and the fact that the ring battles were completely useless."

Xanxus didn't waste much time after the illusions that restricted his movements were gone and aimed at the albino girl again. But before he could shoot, something about the girl made him stop.

"You… you understand." Xanxus frowned in realization.

"Hmm?"

"You understand what I'm going through, brat. I can see it in your eyes."

"I don't think tha-" Zero began hesitantly before looking up to the night sky and correcting herself. "…Maybe I do indeed."

"Xanxus di Vongola has been disqualified." One of the Cervello announced. "Therefore the battle of the rings has been won by Sawada Tsunayoshi."

…

"Why are you here and not at the party, brat?" Xanxus asked. I ignored the luxuries of the hotel room around me and smiled at the only Varia members who weren't wounded enough to be in a hospital.

"I thought that you all needed an explanation."

"They need more than that, Nata." Mammon sighed and Levi nodded in agreement.

"I know." I smiled. "Which is why I'm here."

"…You are just running away from your paperwork, aren't you." Mammon deadpanned. "I saw the stacks, Zero, giving us an explanation is a horrible excuse."

"Kufufufu, you know me too well, Ma-kun." I chuckled. "Anyways, I wanted to say that I kind of understood why you felt betrayed by Timoteo, Xanxus."

"You already did that, brat." Xanxus grumbled.

"What I meant was, that I understand your feelings and though I would love to explain the reason why properly… Ma-kun is right. I have a lot of paperwork to do, but I'd like to talk about it in the near future." I smiled. "Who knows? Maybe we could even have a drinking competition along with it, kufufufu."

"Isn't that illegal since you're underage?" Levi sweatdropped.

"You guys are assassins and I'm a mafia boss. Our entire existences are illegal." I shrugged. "And Verde has confirmed that alcohol can't harm my body, so I can drink whatever I want without ever getting drunk... though I prefer hot chocolate."

"So you're challenging me to a match of which you're sure that you will win?" Xanxus smirked.

"If I wanted to do that, I would have challenged you to play card games." I smirked back.

"Don't get cocky, fish… But I'll accept." Xanxus nodded.

"I will be waiting then." I smiled before leaving the heavily guarded hotel room. The guards gave me a suspicious nod when I passed them and I gave them a sheepish smile. The sole reason why they were suspicious of me was the fact that I wasn't shot as soon as I entered the hotel room. I wasn't sure what stopped Xanxus from doing so, but I guessed that it had something to do with the fact that he somehow knew that I understood him...

I did... Kind of. I had seen a lot of things in my many lifetimes and that made me realize what Xanxus truly felt. It was something that couldn't be explained with words, but everything I saw and felt I was enough to make me somehow understand... most of it.

"Are you sure about this, Zero?" Timoteo asked me when I passed him in a corridor of the hotel.

"Yes." I nodded before giving the old man a small smile. "Your son needs someone to talk with. Someone who can understand him so he can accept the past and move on. Maybe you can join us as well in our talks-"

Before I could finish my sentence, the sound of breaking glass accompanied by a faint echo of 'scum' resounded through the corridor and made us cringe.

"...Maybe later." Nono smiled weakly.

"Maybe later indeed." I agreed.

…

**Omake: unexpected visitor**

"…Dimitri?" I smiled when I walked into the living room and saw the dark haired man. Something was different, but I ignored that for a slightly more important question at the moment. "What are you doing in Japan?"

"Christiano called me a few hours ago." The Neo Estraneo member shrugged. "Something about castrating someone while he is conscious? I can't really remember the exact list, but it sounded like a serious situation."

"…Right." I sweatdropped. "How did you get here so fast if you were only called a few hours ago?"

"Teleportation machine." Dimitri shrugged. "We needed to test it anyways and since the other part, the prototype, is installed in this house we could use it to transport from our base in Italy to here... The only drawbacks are the fact that it needed a lot of electricity and the fact that it ripped my left eyebrow away in the process of transporting me."

"…I can see that, kufufufu." I chuckled nervously at the sight of the missing eyebrow. Dimitri wasn't lying when he said that we had a prototype of a teleportation machine here, but the fact that it actually worked? Since when was my Famiglia able to destroy the laws of space? Sure, they were crazy inventors but for them to be able to create a _working_ teleportation machine? But then again, we were allied to someone who could defy the laws of time, Verde did build a time machine after all… but still. A teleportation machine?

"...Let me guess. I have to sign paperwork to patent this?"

"Well guessed, boss."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**This chapter concludes the Varia arc. No sky battle, but still some... action. I was actually not sure how to end this arc properly, but I hope that this is acceptable. In my opinion, this chapter was actually pretty weak so I apologize if it disappointed you... I do know how the future arc is going to end though ;). Believe me, I have most of that arc planned out (before the Varia arc began actually), you can expect a lot of canon deviation!**

**Zero will grow normally, ****Platina1499 :).**

**Glad that you liked it, n1ghtdr34m3r. After the Varia arc comes the Future arc since I'm following the storyline of the manga instead of the anime. Believe me, in what I planned for the future arc there are enough stuff that are different from canon ;). And as for Alaude... I can only say: maybe kufufufu.**

**Everyone relevant will find out in time, ****Seere Klein. There is physical proof of the kiss after all kufufufu.**

**And to YukiSnowOfFT: Though it is an interesting concept, I have my own things planned in the future arc. You'll see :D and about what Hibari thinks of Zero... Hibari thinks that Zero is a _true_ herbivore. But he does consider Zero a herbivore who knows how to use every part of her herbivoreness to her advantage, so he is able to tolerate her presence. The fact that she is useful for creating weapons and that she understands his language (or lack thereof) was what made him feel that she could be a useful person to the Hibari family. **

**And then there were a lot of other reviews that requested a certain pairing. Thanks for voiving your opinion, but I'm still plotting the romance bits :). On the brighter side, I have more than 350 reviews now XD.**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 19**

"So, what is the plan?" Renata asked her brother while they walked through the aisles of the clothing store.

"Easy." Renato smirked. "A scarf for mother and gloves for father."

"...Something like this?" The younger Sinclair asked as she showed a green scarf to her brother.

It was a rare peaceful Saturday for the Sinclair siblings. No training from Serena, since she was out working, and no mindgames from Renatus, who was currently having a nice talk with his new student. A perfect day to do some errands before Christmas came... But while the siblings were peacefully doing their last minute Christmas shopping, they didn't notice that they were followed by a small group of people.

"Tell me why we are doing this again kora." A certain blonde sighed.

"The younger sibling doesn't seem to like me, so I wanted to observe her to see what I can do to get her to like me better." A Chinese transfer student nodded before hastily hiding behind a red jacket because he saw Renato frowning in his direction.

"That she doesn't like you is an understatement . She is denying your entire existence kora."

"Why doesn't she like me?"

"I have no idea kora. Unlike her brother she is really nice."

"What the hell are you guys doing here?"

The two classmates looked up at the owner of the new voice and cringed when they saw the mood of Renato Sinclair. The blonde took a stealthy glance at the aisle where both siblings were before, but he could only see the mirror in the place where the siblings were supposed to be... The realization hit him harder than any brick could and literally left him dumbfounded. They were observing the Sinclair siblings from a mirror, which meant that they weren't hidden at all.

"Chaos, moron." That managed to snap the said moron out of his dumbfounded state.

"H-hey kora. We didn't know that you-" He tried, but he knew that it was a lost cause. Everyone in school knew that they shouldn't interrupted the 'sibling time' of Renato Sinclair and his little sister and what did he do? The stupid Chinese owed him big time for askinghim along... Actually, the Chinese teen asked everyone in the class to come along, but the other classmates were smart enough to decline the offer. They actually valued their life.

"G-good afternoon, Reborn." The Chinese transfer student smiled hesitantly.

"...Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now." Renato sighed impatiently. "Hurry up, Renata is almost done with paying."

"Because it's almost Christmas kora?"

"Nice try-" Renato began and the two worst stalkers in history honestly thought that they were goners now, but they were lucky. They were confused when they saw the raven haired hitman in training dropping his scowl and smiling fondly, but they didn't complain since it gave them the chance to run.

"Brother?" Renata smiled, not really noticing the two teens that took their chance to run as soon as her brother was distracted enough. The said brother turned to his younger sibling and blinked in confusion when the girl gestured him to crouch with her hand that was not hidden behind her back. when the teen crouched low enough for the four years old girl to reach his head, a black object was pressed on top of his head.

"It's a bit early, but merry Christmas Reborn! It suits you!" Renata beamed. Renato looked in the mirror that the now forgotten stalkers used to onbserve them and smiled at the sight of his early Christmas present. The black fedora with the orange band indeed suited him...

"Merry Christmas, Renata."

**Merry Christmas and if I'm unable to update before it, a happy new year as well! I hope that you guys will have a nice time with family, friends, fanfiction etc! (and nice presents of course). Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	48. Chapter 48

Chapter 45: multiplying questions

While the sky was a hidden behind a healthy roof of leaves and the grass was like a soft sea of green, one Sawada Tsunayoshi was trying to come up with a reason why he appeared in a coffin when he was sent to the future. Any reason apart from being dead of course.

He could have been sleeping- no, who would like to sleep in a coffin? That was just too weird. Maybe he was visiting a grave? Someone who had a coffin with the Vongola crest and a X on the lid who wasn't him? Who was he kidding? Maybe Xanxus managed to take over the Fam- no, that was impossible. Then-

"I DON'T GET IT!" Tsuna exclaimed once he felt like his head was going to split from the only reasonable reason he could come up with, the very one he was trying to avoid at all cost.

A soft sound of ruffling leaves sounded from somewhere to his right and Tsuna's head shot up. For a few seconds, he and the newcomer stared at each other like they were seeing ghosts… which might be true for one of the- No! stop! Tsuna really needed to control his thoughts if he wanted to stay sane.

Or alive.

"Y-You are-" The older version of Gokudera began before his next words were carried away by the wind. The older man either didn't care about it or chose to ignore it to charge forwards and grab Tsuna's shoulders. "Juudaime!"

"Gokudera-kun-"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry-" Gokudera almost chanted. Slowly but surely, it was making Tsuna more and more conscious of his situation. Awakening in a coffin after being hit by the ten years bazooka and getting apologized over and over by the future version of his gua- friend tends to do that.

"I-it hurts." Tsuna muttered, not because of the strong grip that Gokudera had, he was used to be handled roughly, but because of the headache that grew stronger every second.

"S-sorry boss." Gokudera muttered back after he let go of the shoulders of the said boss. "I-I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you and- No, this is not the time for it."

"Not the time for what, Gokudera-kun?"

"Listen, boss. We only have five minutes, so please listen." Gokudera began sternly as he grabbed a picture from the pocket of his vest and handed it over to Tsuna. "When you return to the past… kill this person."

"HIEEE?! What are you talking about-"

"If this guy wouldn't have been here, Byakuran wouldn't be like this and Ze-" Gokudera began, but reminded himself to stop just in time.

"Who is Byakuran and what is wrong with... Ze? Who is Ze… Zero?" Tsuna realized. At the mention of the albino girl, Gokudera flinched slightly and turned away from his boss. "Go-Gokudera-kun? What is wrong with Zero?"

"J-Juudaime… Zero is-" Gokudera began hesitantly, but before he could finish an explosion of pink smoke interrupted him.

Tsuna could only stare at the Gokudera he knew from his time and worry about his headache that grew even stronger. The questions multiplied now… what happened- or will happen to him in the future?

_And what happens to Zero?_

…

"T-this signal! Lal-san-"

"I know, we were lucky that the signal is so close to the base. Now we only hope that _they_ don't catch the signal before I arrive."

"I-I. Please let me come along! This could give me a clue to-"

"Calm down… I understand, but you have to stay here. We can't let the strau moscas to get even the smallest glimpse of you."

"But I-… I get it."

"Don't worry, I'll be back with them soon."

"Please don't fight them. If I remember it right, the ring battles were just finished nine years and ten months ago… and we just signaled a few strau moscas in the vicinity, you have to act fast."

"…I can't promise anything."

"Take care, Lal-san."

…

"There must be a secret message here." Gokudera stated confidently as he engrossed himself in the letters that his future self had written down. He was so engrossed in them that he didn't notice the single sheet of paper fell from the letters that Gokudera was reading, but Tsuna did. And his headache grew stronger once he saw the slightly yellowed part of the paper touching the grassy ground.

"You dropped something." Tsuna said despite the warning bells that almost ordered him to pick it up himself instead of warning Gokudera. The silver haired teen looked up from his letters and blinked at the sheet of paper on the ground before crouching down to pick it up and to look at it. His green eyes widened at the contents of the frayed paper and his breathing stopped for a second.

"D-does the midget have a brother?" Gokudera asked after he literally dropped the sheet in his shock. Suddenly a strong gust of wind got a hold on the said sheet and carried it to where Tsuna stood, adding an almost dramatic effect to Gokudera's words.

"Do you mean Reborn?" Tsuna sweatdropped while he caught the paper before it hit his face and the teen couldn't help but notice a few things. First of all, the paper was a picture. Secondly, the printed photo felt familiar, like he had seen it before. And lastly, his headache stopped once his fingers touched the slightly rough surface of the picture.

"N-no." Tsuna heard Gokudera mutter his answer, but he was too busy with gaping at the picture to actually hear it properly.

The first thing that caught his eye was the white haired woman standing slightly to the left of a brown haired man. She was just a head shorter than the brunet and smiled a smile that sparkled even in a photograph.

_Zero_.

Tsuna's eyes widened once he realized who the woman on the picture was and then he noticed the other parts of the printed photo. Next to the familiar looking brunet was the older version of Gokudera and left to Zero was a woman with long purple hair with the top slightly styled in a pineapple style... and behind Zero was a man. Tsuna knew immediately that this was what Gokudera meant. It was no wonder that Gokudera was asking for Zero's brother when he observed the man behind Zero. They had the same coloring, the same violet eyes and white hair…

"T-this picture." Tsuna stuttered once he figured out why he recognized the picture. It was the exact same picture he saw when he was sent to the future a while ago, but then a part was cut away. A part that was attached to the picture now. The part with Zero and the unidentified white haired man.

Tsuna turned the picture around and almost dropped the picture as well when he read what was written behind it.

_Visiting the cliff with the Vongola, Neo Estraneo and Gesso to celebrate the newly established alliance._

"So here you are." An unfamiliar voice snapped the teens out of their confused states.

"Are you the enemy?" Gokudera growled at the new figure that approached the coffin.

"I could be, but fortunately I'm not." The figure replied before taking the goggles off and revealing her face. "My name is Lal Mirch and I'm here to escort you to the secret base."

…

"Are you sure that we can trust this woman, Juudaime?" Gokudera asked when they were left alone for a moment. Tsuna took a little to think about why he actually chose to trust Lal Mirch, but he couldn't find any good reason. He just felt that he could trust her.

"Yes." Tsuna nodded.

"This is the hyper intuition at work, isn't it?"

"Hieee?! Where did you come from, Lal-san and why did you appear like that?"

"Me?" Lal smirked. "I just returned and I didn´t really intend to, but now I understand why she liked to appear out of nowhere. It is indeed very amusing to see these reactions."

"…Who?" Tsuna asked.

"You know her." Lal stated as her smirk turned into a weak smile. "Estraneo Zero."

"You know her?" Gokudera questioned, still suspicious of the woman.

"Of course I do. For all I know, I know her even better than you two. We have known each other for _years_." Lal huffed and Tsuna couldn't help the small pang of jealousy when she said that. "Don't worry, Vongola X. You know her better than me in the future, I just wanted to see your reaction if I said that I knew her better." Lal nodded before looking away from the two teens and opening some kind of parachute.

"H-huh?" Tsuna stuttered dumbly, but feeling strangely relieved, while the blue haired woman was releasing some kind of parachute in the air.

"She was right, It really began when you guys were younger… I owe them money then." Lal sighed as she gestured to the teens to follow her and the parachute. "But then again, we all lost to Reborn's bet so I don't really have to pay up."

"Talking about Reborn, where is the future him?" Tsuna asked with newfound hope and confusion. He had even more questions now, but this question was more important at the moment.

"Yeah, he was hit by the future bazooka before us." Gokudera nodded.

"Reborn… and all the other arcobaleno in this time…" Lal began hesitantly, stopping in her tracks for a small second before walking even faster. "They are dead."

This silenced the two teens and left them frozen in shock. The strongest of the earth are dead? _How?_

"A lot has happened in the past ten years." Lal stated when she sensed the unasked questions. "First things first, I guess. I belong to the Vongola's organization CEDEF."

"The one that dad is in?" Tsuna asked after catching up with the scarred woman.

"Then you really are in our side." Gokudera muttered.

"…Yes." Lal nodded and though Tsuna instinctively knew that she wasn't lying, he also sensed that he wasn't going to like the reason for the hesitation before the answer.

"The entire Vongola is in a state of emergency and our detectors managed to find your presences, so I went to fetch you two." Lal stated before Tsuna could ask the reasons for her hesitation.

"S-state of emergency?" Gokudera asked incredulously.

"That is right… The Vongola headquarters fell two days ago and was destroyed."

…

"Hold up here, woman!" Gokudera scowled when he and Tsuna found the blue haired woman again. "How can the great Vongola have fallen?"

"Now is not the time for asking questions." Lal frowned. "We have to go to the hideout as fast as possible."

"But-"

"P-please listen, Gokudera-kun." Tsuna pleaded. "She is right, we have to go."

"J-juudaime."

"Heh, the Vongola hyper intuition is indeed very useful." Lal smirked before walking off again.

"Oi! Wait for us!"

"G-Gokudera-kun…"

"This way." Lal interjected.

"How do you know that you have to go this way?" Tsuna asked.

"That parachute points us the safest route to the hideout while avoiding the strau moscas."

"Strau… don't you mean _gola_ mosca?" Gokudera frowned.

"No, the strau moscas are the more advanced versions of the gola moscas." Lal corrected before stopping in her tracks in the middle of the forest where the parachute stopped and opening another box. "Technology advanced a lot, especially with the Neo-… It advanced a lot. We have arrived."

…

"Ciaossu."

"R-Reborn…" Tsuna smiled when he saw the baby hitman sitting on a faintly familiar green couch.

"…-me" The small figure said.

"What-"

"Hug me~"

"Over here, Dame-Tsuna!" Reborn announced as he kicked the teen in the back of his head.

…

"…What happened in the future, Reborn-san?" Gokudera asked.

"Why does everyone I met in the future seem to avoid the question where Zero is?" Tsuna added. Reborn sighed and looked straight at his student.

"The ten years bazooka somehow sent us to the world of nine years and ten months in the future." He began. "How that happened, not even I know... But I do know that every base of the Vongola was simultaneously ambushed."

"What?" Gokudera whispered.

"And that isn't everything yet." Lal Mirch added gravely. "The Vongola members who survived are being hunted, even their families outside the mafia."

"N-No-" Tsuna stuttered horrified, but before he could say anything more, Lal interrupted him.

"Don't lose hope. We have confirmed that the guardians are still alive and we are now locating them with highly advanced detectors, we will need their help if we want to survive or win this... _war_."

"You must assemble the six scattered guardians." Reborn nodded. "We have a already confirmed that Yamamoto is somewhere close to us, but the other guardians still have to be signaled."

"We know that the sun guardian is on a mission and that the lightning guardian was on a guarding duty before everything went downwards." Lal added. "The cloud guardian is... like a cloud and pretty much unable to be located most of the time and the mist-"

"Mukuro-sama is in the Vindicare." A new voice finished. The males in the room turned their head to the newcomer, but Lal already knew who it was and simply nodded a greeting.

"Chrome."

"Welcome back, Lal-san." The woman whowas on the photo and who Tsuna now recognized as Zero'so adoptive daughter smiled sadly.

"...Vindicare?" Tsuna asked.

"A lot has happened since Zero went missing." Chrome nodded. "We-... Even with everything we have left, we couldn't locate Zero. Not even the smallest hint that she is alive and w-we... I have no idea if she is actually still alive by now, considering the war and-" Chrome's voice hitched. Overtaken by raw emotions, the woman looked away from the stares she received from the two teens and allowed herself to sit down on the green couch to calm down. Lal sat down next to her and put a supporting hand on her shoulder.

"We aren't sure if she actually survived, considering that the hidden main base of the Neo Estraneo was found and _destroyed_ by Byakuran at the time that she disappeared." Lal stated bluntly. "We know that she wasn't at the base at that time though. That means that Zero disappeared on own accords... or that Byakuran captured her. But either way, she is missing in action and untraceable... In mafia-terms: she is _gone_."

...

**Omake: the new kid**

_A few years ago_

"What happened?" I sighed to myself when I saw the alarming amount of smoke and red lit sky from the window of my room. It was sad how only two years of being the mafia boss of an inventors-Famiglia could change my reaction to burning towns in something so... apathetic. I knew that Silicy was used to the antics of my Famiglia-members, but to get used to the sight of the town burning?

I sighed again before abandoning the paperwork on the desk and leaving the main base of the Neo Estraneo. It was only a few minutes walk to Silicy, so when I reached the town I could still see the emergency robots attempting to put down the fire. The townspeople of Silicy waved at me when I passed them and acted almost casually while their town burned... Yes, they were too used to this.

"A beautiful day, isn't it, Zero?" One of the elderly men smiled when I passed him. I knew that everyone in Silicy was already well-informed of the destructions that my Famiglia created alongside the inventions, but that didn't stop them for allowing the inventors to do their tests in their town. Their only demand was that the damage that was done would be repared and that no one should get wounded in the process... That was why no one around here seemed to panic at the sight of the frightning amount of flames and the reason why I felt my mental age so now and then, even though I was physically just seven.

_People these days adapt way to fast._

"Aside from the fire, it is." I agreed reluctantly. "Do you have any idea who did this, Taddeo?"

"The new kid." Taddeo smiled.

"The... new kid?" I frowned. "But I haven't heard of a new member."

"Hahaha, no. I meant the new kid in Silicy. He moved in just yesterday with his mother." The old man laughed. "He is amazing, I tell you. He challenged some inventors of yours and began a robot-fight in the middle of the town! It ended in a draw, so he was challenged again today which resulted in the fire here. The youths of these days are amazing!"

"I can see that." I sighed. That received another laugh from the old man who excused himself and left the not-crime scene. I turned around and looked past my Famiglia and robots, allowing me to catch a glimpse of the remains of a small robot somewhere in the ashes of the now extinguished fire. I warily walked towards the remaining scraps, knowing that there was always a change of it blowing up, and touched the rough surface of the metal which was still hot from the fire it was in.

"Hmm, so this is the culprit." I couldn't help but smile softly as I read the fortunately undamaged name that was written on the metal with a pernament marker. "I wonder if this 'Spanner' is interested in a part-time job."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I did mention that I had a lot of canon deviation planned, right? I was surprised that I actually found some time to finish this chapter so soon, I expected not to update until next year. The chapter was surprisingly easy to write though, so here is the update :D. I wonder what will happen next kufufufu ;).**

**To answer your question, ****ddmahan922, it is a combination of both. Zero (Alexis at the time) had a slightly childish personality, but being in a child's body is what allows her to express that personality a bit more than in an older body.**

**In that case I'm glad that you stumbled across this humble fic as well then, KiraKiraBluemoon ;). And though the fact that the arcobaleno knew each other before the arcobaleno thing wasn't stated in canon can't stop me from saying otherwise ;P**

**I suppose that I could write an omake about that, KainVixenheim. I was already thinking that the next few chapters will have way too less Zero-time and that I probably needed some AU's or crossovers to write in the omakes instead, so why not? I'm actually curious about who would win too XP.**

**I won't reveal the truth yet, Lisana and Adione, it will be way funnier that way kufufufu ;P.**

**Thanks for all the reviews and all the support you guys showed in this year! I wish everyone an amazing New Year, since my next upate will be next year XD. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter 46: false alarm

"Are you tired, Juudaime?" Gokudera asked worriedly when he saw the tired expression on Tsuna's face. He wasn't really aware that he looked equally tired, but Gokudera could care less about that at the moment. Both the teens from the past were still trying to understand the information they got about the future.

There was a guy who wanted to destroy the Vongola and unlike his predecessors in the past, he was succeeding. This Byakuran managed to not only destroy the bases of the Vongola, but also the main base of the Neo Estraneo which was supposed to be hidden from the world. The same guy was hunting the Vongola guardians and their family and for all they knew, he could have captured Zero already.

"K-kind of." Tsuna admitted sheepishly with a halfhearted smile. He didn't think that he would be able to sleep well after hearing what could have happened to Zero. Or what would happen to the albino girl in the future. Tsuna knew that Zero would be able to take care of herself, especially knowing that she was _Reborn's_ sister in a former life and that she was the teacher of Mukuro, but that didn't stop his worries.

Tsuna had seen Zero in her moments of weakness and even if the girl could convince everyone that she was fine, he didn't like to see her like that. It just… didn't fit. What made it even worse was the look that Reborn had whenever Zero was mentioned, like he had lost something. He did- no, he could have… _again_.

"What could have happened?" Gokudera muttered, unknowingly voicing Tsuna's concerns.

"I don't know." Tsuna whispered. The unsaid 'I wish I knew' somehow reaching the silver haired teen while Gokudera looked at the almost calming green surface of the dinner table. It was almost disturbing how the color managed to calm him down for even the smallest bit since he was feeling everything but calm.

"She'll be fine." Gokudera smiled a bit unsure and sounding like he was trying to convince himself as well. "I've seen how she fights when she was training me and it was surprisingly… _effective_. She actually wasn't even _fighting_ but she could still stand her own, even when she was holding back."

"That somehow doesn't surprise me." Tsuna smiled back. "If she was Reborn's sister and Mukuro's teacher, she must be able to take care of herself. And we have both seen her dodging Squalo."

"I almost forgot about that, the midget has a lot of tricks on her sleeves." Gokudera snorted. "Did you know, Juudaime, that the midget managed to stungun the perverted doctor?"

"Really? She stungunned _Shamal_?" Tsuna laughed.

"I do remember uncle Seth saying about something like that." A soft voice laughed from behind the teens, making them jump in surprise when she walked in the room with a tray with three green cups.

"C-Chrome-san!" Tsuna stuttered.

"Don't do this again, woman!" Gokudera scowled, though it didn't give the desired effect because he was simply too tired.

"Sorry, it's a habit." Chrome smiled softly. "I hope that you two don't mind hot chocolate, it's the only warm drink that I can make properly. I know that it won't help you to fall asleep, but you both look like you could use something warm."

"…Thank you." Tsuna nodded as he accepted one of the hot cups from the purple haired woman. Gokudera grumbled something incomprehensible before accepting a green cup as well and glaring at the steaming brown liquid it contained as if to blame it for his and his boss' inability to sleep.

Chrome walked to the dinner table when there was only one cup left and took a seat across the timetravellers. Tsuna noted that the action of the eyepatched woman was almost fluid, like she was used to sitting in that particular seat… Tsuna almost choked in his hot chocolate when he realized where he had seen the table before.

Where he had seen the _furniture_ of the secret base before, even the cup that he was holding in his hands.

"T-this- aren't these from-"

"Our home." Chrome confirmed wistfully. "I took the furniture to- I simply couldn't leave it behind, knowing that Byakuran could destroy our home as well. I feared that the Millefiore could destroy the last memories that I held dear… this was all I could safe before it was too late."

"Is he really that horrible?" Gokudera muttered, glaring harder at the contents of his cup as he asked the question. "To destroy someone's home like that. To hunt the families of Vongola members even though they could have been innocent people? Not connected to the mafia in any way possible?"

"He… I think he wasn't." Chrome admitted. "Not really, even though this _is_ the mafia-world and… but Byakuran was… I still can't understand why this is happening. One day we were still living our everyday life, then suddenly the arcobaleno started to get ill and everything went from bad to worse. Everyone- they all-"

Tsuna looked at his cup when the tears started to fall from the woman's visible eye. He wasn't sure how to comfort her, especially when something in the back of his head finished her sentence. Chrome didn't need to finish, Tsuna somehow knew what happened already and Gokudera could guess it easily, but she still did.

"Everyone died." Chrome whispered. "My Famiglia, my _family_, suddenly they were all gone while I was out for negotiations. Zero disappeared and Mukuro-sama got in the Vindicare at the same time as well. I lost _everyone_ in a single moment and I still don't fully understand what happened, even after… so long."

"Why is that basta- Mukuro caught." Gokudera corrected himself before he would make the woman cry more, god knew that he had enough to worry about and he didn't want to add a woman's tears to the list. He wasn't sure how to stop those from flowing and the purple haired woman was already crying, damn it. "Knowing him he wouldn't allow himself to get caught. He would have at least ten backup plans for his backup plans or at least a few plans on escaping the prison… even though it is the most guarded place of the world."

"I don't know." Chrome answered. "And that is the worst part. I simply don't know why Mukuro-sama decided to leave everything here and allow himself to get caught. It isn't like him to leave his weapons behind and surrender."

Tsuna looked up, alarmed by the words of the woman with the eyepatch. Mukuro left his weapons. He _surrendered_. No way that this was the Mukuro he knew. The Mukuro he knew was cunning and prepared to do _anything_ to win, not someone who would decide to simply surrender.

If Tsuna wasn't sure of it before, he was now. Something, somewhere in the future, went terribly wrong.

…

When Tsuna and Gokudera woke up, it wasn't a peaceful morning. They were woken up by the loud sound that send shivers through their spines and almost fell out of their seats because of the sound.

"What is happening?!" Gokudera scowled, immediately awake and looking for suspicious movements. He knew by experience that this kind of alarm couldn't mean well in the life of Mafiosi. Maybe he had survived previous invasions in his own home because he was trained for it, but Gokudera knew that he could be the last defense line of his boss now.

He couldn't risk to fight like he normally did because he could hurt Tsuna.

"I don't know." Tsuna answered in a half dazed and half alarmed state. The dazed part of his brains wondered when he and Gokudera fell asleep since they fell asleep on the dinner table, Tsuna couldn't remember. The alarmed part of his brains, however, was trying to calm down.

It was like Tsuna knew that Gokudera and him were safe… or at least as safe as they could be in this place. Tsuna couldn't place the faint, but familiar, buzzing in the back of his head that warned hi-

"Pay attention!" Reborn announced as the kick connected to the back of Tsuna's head. Tsuna took everything about 'safety' back, he wasn't safe here at all. "We signaled a guardian."

"Who?" Tsuna asked with hope apparent in his voice.

"Lambo." Reborn stated. "But he wasn't the only one who was signaled."

…

"You look disappointed, Chrome." Lal commented when the other woman slumped in her seat.

"I was… just hoping." Chrome muttered. "But it was false alarm."

"She is fine."

"But we haven't gotten any clues of what could have happened to Zero."

"She is fine." Lal Mirch stated again. "You can trust Zero a bit more than this, you know? Even those brats form the past trust her to be able to take care of herself."

"Do they really?" Chrome smiled sadly with an almost bitter edge. "I mean, they're just like me. Trying to cope with the situation by distracting themselves with only looking at the strengths of Zero and trying to forget her weaknesses."

"You can't deny that she is one of the best illusionists we know." Lal Mirch sighed. "Maybe the very best, even. Knowing that she was the one who taught-"

"But aren't we forgetting something?" Chrome asked rhetorically. "Aren't we forgetting that Zero's body isn't suited for combat? Aren't we forgetting that Zero isn't able to use all of her box weapons properly? And aren't we forgetting Byakuran?"

"You out of all people should know that her so called 'weak bones constitution' is close to nonexistent these days, Chrome. You do remember that Hibari and Reborn started to train her physically when they found out about that, right?"

"They held back?"

"Stop disillusioning yourself, Chrome. Reborn and holding back? I don't know about the cloud, but Reborn isn't the type to go easy on anyone." Lal huffed. "And what I heard about Zero's abilities with box weapons, she is skilled enough. You're her daughter, Chrome. You out of all people should know her weaknesses and strengths."

"What about Byakuran?" Chrome whispered almost inaudibly soft, something that froze Lal for a small second.

"…That bastard isn't worth mentioning." And that was the end of the conversation. Both the women looked away from each other to calm down. Thinking too much about Byakuran never helped them to think clearly, even when he wasn't the enemy. That guy was _that_ infuriating and it was simply a part of his personality.

Chrome was the first to look up when the alarm sounded again, but it was Lal who commented on the two lights on the screen first.

"Why are those brats outside? Has Reborn gone crazy?!"

"I'll-"

"You stay here, Chrome. You can't be seen." Lal scowled. "_I_'ll go."

"Ah-"

"I'll be fine." Lal stated while she ran off, leaving Chrome who only wanted to point out that there was a new signal on the screen. The sound of the alarm going off again drowned Chrome's voice as Lal left the secret base.

…

"Are you sure that this is how we should use the parachute?" Tsuna asked warily as he watched the parachute floated around the corner. It was a bit suspicious how something that looked as fragile as this parachute was one of the inventions that were used for navigating to the secret base and tracking the guardians. Knowing Reborn, Tsuna expected something more… indestructible, though he couldn't deny that the fact that Lal used the parachute to find the secret base was solid proof that the parachute was used for tracking.

"According the manual, this is how it's used, Juudaime." Gokudera nodded, though he was suspicious as well as the parachute made its way through the industrial terrain. This didn't look like a place where women and children would be. "I can't believe that the guarding duty of the cow involved _them_."

"And I can't believe that you guys left the base just like that." An all too familiar voice sounded from behind the timetravellers, making said teens freeze in their tracks. Lal wasn't amused. "Tell me one reason why I shouldn't kick your sorry asses for stealing one of the few parachutes which are connected to the main tracker and leaving the base unsupervised."

"W-we just-"

"Wanted to safe Haru, Kyoko and I-Pin while you were at saving Lambo? Do I have to remind you that Lambo and I-Pin are both older than you two and able to protect the women?" Lal interrupted Tsuna. "You were even more softhearted when you were younger, I can't believe that _that _was possible."

"Stop badmouthing Juudaime, woman-"

"Just keep your eyes open." Lal interrupted again. "If you are staying out here and want to survive, you're both going to listen to me and follow every order I give you guys."

"You're going to let us come along?" Tsuna asked the woman.

"It's either that or leaving you two to find your way back to the base on yourself and risking an early death for the Vongola X and his storm guardian."

"Ah." Tsuna laughed sheepishly, not really able to deny the fact that he could die out here.

"Keep your eyes open." Lal Mirch stated once again as she looked past the corner of one of the blocks. "If we run into the Millefiore here, hide. Don't engage a fight." The woman gestured the teens to stay quiet and follow another one of the parachutes through the factory blocks.

Tsuna and Gokudera followed the woman while their parachute faithfully followed the teens like it was programmed to do if it wasn't used and yet not stored away.

"Why parachutes?" Tsuna mumbled to himself as he looked at the object that was following them. He was still confused about the devices, why _parachutes_ of all things that they could have been?

"Because the Neo Estraneo wanted to joke around." Lal grumbled under her breath. Gokudera and Tsuna sweatdropped when they heard that and decided to let it go, they sensed that this was kind of a sensitive topic.

"Do you hear that?" Tsuna asked to distract Lal from her odd mood, just before something exploded for real behind some of the factory blocks. The brunet almost shrieked in surprise when the ground shook and he almost fell to the ground, but he somehow managed to stop himself from doing either.

"Hide, I'm going to look." Lal ordered before stealthily running after the parachute, in the direction where the explosion sounded from.

"Where?" Gokudera asked after the woman in a hushed tone, but Lal couldn't hear him anymore. Since he took his time scowling after the woman, he didn't notice the same thing as Tsuna did.

"Gokudera-kun…" Tsuna started hesitantly.

"Yes, Juudaime?"

"Lal ran after her parachute, didn't she?"

"Yes."

"Then… why are there _two_ parachutes here?"

…

**Omake: the demon returns ( -man crossover… kind of?)**

Allen never liked going to Italy, especially since master Cross somehow managed to get in debt with every single casino there, but at the moment he had little choice. If only Timcanpy didn't disappear somewhere in this town and if the rumors didn't state that an Akuma wasn't here in Italy he would have reached the Black Order already to become an exorcist…

"I told you that I was waiting for my family and that I wasn't interested." Someone said, catching Allen's attention. The crowd dispersed, apparently not wanting to step in another feud between a mafia member and a girl. They knew better than that. Allen sighed and wondered why fate seemed to hate him as he ran a gloved hand through his white hair before approaching the avoided duo.

"Could you let her go please?" Allen asked the mob politely. The man looked at him and looked back at the girl before looking at him again.

"You're her brother?" The mafia member asked.

"Hmm?" The girl frowned in confusion as she looked past the mob and revealed herself to Allen.

He didn't know that there was another teenager who had the same hair color as him, was the girl cursed as well? Allen shook his head and put the matter aside for the moment and he smiled brightly. "Here you are, _cousin_."

"…Says the one who got lost." The albino girl with violet eyes deadpanned, playing along with the act. "Excuse me, sir, but I'll be leaving since my relative finally came to pick me up."

"But-"

"Like I said, I'm not interested." The girl smiled brightly, somehow creating sparkles and flowers in the background. Both Allen and the mob were confused by the strong effect of the smile, but the girl snapped Allen out of it by pulling him away from the mafia member.

"You-"

"You're an idiot." The girl stated bluntly when they were a good distance away from the man. "If that didn't distract him enough he would have taken you too!"

"_Taken_?" Allen asked, a little taken back by the words that the girl used. She looked barely old enough to be all alone. She couldn't be much older than the average primary schoolkid and that mob wanted to-

"Recruited." The girl corrected his thoughts. "This Famiglia has been chasing me ever since day I arrived here on new year's morning…"

"What could a young girl like you have done to attract their attention?" Allen frowned.

"Literally appearing out of nowhere is a good beginning." The albino girl sighed. "I knew that I shouldn't have volunteered to test that invention."

"Invention?"

"My Famiglia is very… innovative, but sometime their inventions malfunction and… send me here. I've been here since my birthday and I'm still waiting for them to repair the machine."

"…Interesting." Allen sweatdropped. It wasn't an everyday occurrence that he saved a weirdo like this girl. That brought him an idea. Since he saved this weirdo, shouldn't she be able to help him out a little?

Allen looked at the girl who was warily looking around, prepared to run away when she spotted another mafia member, and nodded. He'd better ask her before she ran away.

"Have you heard of the demon of the port?"

"Demon… of the port?" The girl echoed incredulously. "I haven't heard that since… a _long_ time ago." Allan cursed under his breath and tried to act natural when he heard that. If this Akuma was really old as the voice of the girl insinuated, the Akuma could be a high levelled one.

"So you have heard of it."

"Hmm, I would be lying if I said that I didn't know but… why are you asking this?"

"I'm simply interested in the rumor." Allen lied smoothly. "I heard that the demon of the port was terrorizing the town again after a few centuries-"

"I'm not terrorizing the town." The girl pouted. "I can't help that they suck at card games."

"…What?" For the second time, Allen was taken back by the words of the girl. "You're the Aku- demon of the port?"

"I prefer Zero." Zero sighed. "And it's just a stupid rumor. I needed to earn money to be able to have a roof above my head until my family fixes that machine."

"You… aren't an Akuma." Allen realized.

"You can speak Japanese? And isn't Akuma just another word for demon?" The girl blinked in surprise. "Hmm… I'm not really the demon of the port kufufufu. It's a fancy title for someone in a faraway past."

"I came here for no real reason then." Allen sighed.

"You could always play a game with me." Zero offered. "How good are you in card games?"

…

"You're the best player that I've been going against in ages. Poker hasn't been so fun since my teacher passed away." Zero noted before folding. "You're good at cheating, by the way."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Allen responded calmly. He was only able to hide his surprise because of ages of experience thanks to master Cross, but how was the girl able to see that he cheated? Now he was thinking about it, the girl had a good pokerface as well. It would have been better if it didn't have that sadistic edge though.

"Continue cheating, playing poker is more fun that way, kufufufu." Zero chuckled as she reached out for the cards to shuffle the deck again.

"You… think that it's fun?" Allen asked, deciding that the girl was a weirdo once again while he gathered the chips. His eyes widened a bit when he saw the hand that the girl actually held before she folded. She had a four of a kind, not bad considering that Allen was indeed cheating.

"Challenging." Zero smirked before dealing the cards again. "Playing against hyper intuition is pretty challenging as well, but for some reason Tsuna refuses to play against me."

"…I'm sure that they have their own reasons." Allen smiled a fake smile as he remembered the way that the girl shuffled her cards. She was a professional, that was for sure. No amateur can shuffle like that.

"Hmm, I'm sure they have." Zero agreed after raising.

"Call." Allen nodded while discreetly using a sleight of hand to exchange one of his cards for something more favorable. He had to do that far too often to win against this girl, what kind of luck or bluffing skills did this girl have?

"All in-" Zero announced before promptly disappearing out of nowhere. Allen blinked in surprise at the spot where the girl had been a few second ago and rubbed his eyes in disbelieve. The girl _literally_ disappeared into nothing right in front of his eyes… right?

"I… need to sleep more." Allen decided. "Maybe I need to get out of this country. Master Cross' debts are probably making me hallucinate." The white haired teen gathered his stuff to find his golem and leave Italy.

A few minutes later, a few passerby's wondered why there was a mess of fake coins and two hands of royal straight flushes on the ground.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I'm sorry for errors if they appear in this chapter because I didn't have the time to edit it. Exams are hell X(. I'm trying to be more foreshadowing in this chapter, but I probably failed haha. And a crossover omake as requested by KainVixenheim, it was kind of fun to write :). It's also a small birthday present for Zero, since her birthday was supposed to be on the first of January and I wasn't able to update then. She deserved a good game kufufu.**

**The reactions of most of the TYL characters will probably appear in the story itself, ddmahan922. Or at least it is supposed to appear if everything goes as planned.**

**I do plan ahead, don't I, n1ghtdr34m3r? The future arc was actually one of the first arcs I began with planning ;)**

**QuietSilence, thank you, I guess :).**

**And again, I thank the others for reviewing as well. The review-count reached 400 while I was away XD and then I noticed that the Favs- and Follow-counts both reached the 300 and 350 marks respectively! Thank you all for your support! **

**Wait… Does this mean that I need to write three Sinclair omakes for one chapter? I'm starting to think that this chapter is more omake than chapter... Oh well, you guys deserved it, I guess and it is fun to write.**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 20**

Despite the fact that school was boring, his normal classes were one of the few safe havens that Renato had. No sudden Spartan training, no stupid cats, no headaches stimulating neighbors in his normal classes. Just lessons that were boring so now and then, though some interesting events made his school life brighter.

Yet another history teach- former history teacher was hospitalized and the principal simply couldn't hire another one because they heard rumors. Rumors that surrounded the younger Sinclair sibling who was apparently the one who was responsible for the latest hospitalized teacher. Or all of them.

Renato still stifled a laugh of amusement when he heard those rumors about his little sister being the demon of past knowledge. The girl was ill suited to be a demon, but the past knowledge part actually suited her. She was a history-nerd after all. It was amusing to see the exasperation on Renata's face when yet another believer joined the rumor cycle.

"How are we going to get new history teachers?" She asked him once during lunch and Renato had to think about it.

Though for certain students, there was an extra class to learn how to use dying will flames, this didn't change the fact that history was still an important part of the curriculum and because of certain amusing rumors… No one wanted to be hired.

There were too many believers of the Renata-is-a-demon-rumor and the principal was starting to become desperate.

That was when the replacement of the history teacher came as a single book and that was when Renato realized that their principal was a believer as well. The book wasn't just any book. It was a paperback version of the many notes that Renata wrote about the subject.

Apparently, the principal sent Renata's notebooks to some, apparently, prestigious universities with the permission of Renatus Sinclair. Apparently those universities agreed that the notes were all historically seen correct and brilliant to read. Apparently Renata became a professor because of that… not that the four years old girl knew that.

She wouldn't have the chance to chase another history teacher away, because _she_ became the history teacher in a way… not that she knew that of course.

…

**Omake 3: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 21**

There were a few things that Renato would never expect to happen in the Sinclair household. One of them was that no burglar would be able to get in and out of their house… actually, he simply thought that no burglar would dare going in the house filled with deadly beings. In the end, he was proven wrong when he walked downstairs for breakfast.

Renatus Sinclair was usually the first one to get out of his bed, after him came Renato, Renata and Serena, but none of them were currently sitting at the dinner table. A stranger was.

"Shushushu, who have we here?" The stranger laughed eerily and as if he had summoned her, Serena Sinclair was in front of the stranger with a gun aimed at his head.

"I thought that we agreed on never taking a step into the territory of each other." Serena stated bluntly, prodding the head of the stranger with her gun.

"How sad that my rival wants me dead." The stranger mock-whined. He barely avoided getting shot in the head.

"Get out."

"I'm here to challenge you."

"Get out."

"I will even the odds this time."

"Get out before I empty this gun on your body."

"How bold, Rena." The stranger commented before barely dodging another bullet.

"I should have taken the rifle as well." Serena muttered under her breath. "And the knives, this cockroach is impossible to kill."

"And there I hoped that I would never see you again." Renatus Sinclair sighed when he entered the room as well.

"Who is this, father?" Renato asked.

"Your mother's rival since childhood." Renatus sighed. "He is also her relative-"

""_Distant_ relative."" Both Serena and her rival declared at the same time. Renato noted that the rivals had the same golden hair color and the same black eyes, but he would never point that out since he wants to live his life.

"I'm not accepting this challenge." Serena hissed.

"Afraid that you might lose?"

Renato and his father took a huge step back. No one should ever say these words to the matriarch of this household. _No one_. Serena was competitive, the dangerous kind.

"…Who is that?" Renata asked after the gun was emptied. The unharmed stranger looked up to the four years old girl with the cat in her arms and raised an eyebrow in interest,

"You never told me that you had two brats?"

Renato and Renatus took another step back and decided to drag Renata with them in fear of the reaction of Serena, but the woman did not react negatively. She reacted much more frightening than that.

"Renata, dear, wouldn't you want to help your mother with a challenge?" Serena asked with a smile which was too gentle to be real. Then she turned to her 'rival' and smiled again, albeit less serene and darker. "You wouldn't mind challenging one of my… _brats_, don't you."

"Your loss." The man shrugged.

"Renata, sweety, do you want to play poker or black jack for your mother?"

Renato and Renatus decided to leave the house for that day.

…

**Omake 4: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 22**

"Class, today we have some… _group activities_." The hooded teacher announced with clear distaste as they walked into the classroom.

"…What kora?" Someone asked. Renato didn't have to look up to know who said that and for a change, he agreed with the owner of the voice. _What?_

"A… _certain person_ suggested to hold a group activity to strengthen the bonds between classmates since the relationship is… apparently nonexistent apart from some exceptions." The hooded teacher scowled, obviously not amused by the situation they were forced in.

Actually, it seemed that the majority of the class wasn't amused with the exception of a few people who were all suspects of being the 'certain person' who suggested the group activity. Renato could see that Renata wasn't against the group activity, but he didn't think that his younger sister would suggest something like that. She could easily be one of the most sociable people in this classroom though… Not that her classmates were very sociable to begin with.

Not at all… and then add the fact that the teacher was just as unsociable as the others in the class. Yes, Renata was _definitely_ one of the more sociable people in the class.

Another person who seemed to be undisturbed by the group activity was the dark green haired girl who was in Renato's class. If he had to say it, she was probably the only one who looked positively thrilled by the prospect of having a group activity. And yet, Renato wasn't about to suspect her.

He was suspecting the guy who made a beeline to his little sister after the announcement.

"Let's get along." The Chinese transfer student smiled pleasantly while he reached out to touch Renata's shoulder as a peace offering. However, when his hand was just a few millimeters away from her shoulders the girl disappeared… wait, _what?_

Renato shot up in his chair to get a better view of what just happened, hoping that he was simply imagining it. But no, his sister was gone from her seat. How was that possible? Where was she? What has that bastard gone to let Renata disappear?

"I'm not here." Someone whispered behind him and Renato relaxed at the soft tug on his shirt. He could recognize this presence everywhere.

"How did you do that?" Renato asked his little sister who took refuge behind him.

"Instincts." Renata answered bluntly.

"Instincts…" Renato echoed. He couldn't remember instincts being able to let people disappear, but it did explain how his little sister was able to outrun his mother. No one was able to outrun Serena Sinclair.

"That was a good display of illusions." The teacher nodded, the only one beside Renato and Vi-chan to notice the black haired girl behind her brother. "Well, since you have the best grasp of your dying will flames, how about you choose the group activity?"

Renato visibly flinched when he heard that and he faintly noticed that Vi-chan had the same reaction. Their teacher just doomed the class. Renato felt the glare at his back coming from the hooded friend of Renata, whose gender he still couldn't figure out, and translated the glare as an if-I'm-going-down,- you're-going-down-with-me-glare.

He didn't care about that, he just wanted to get away as fast as possible…But he couldn't. Not while Renata was still holding his shirt like that.

"Poker." Renata muttered and Renato could only pray that his doom wasn't going to be that bad.

**Now I have posted this, I will go in my exams without worrying about this fic. I hate exams. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	50. Chapter 50

Chapter 47: technology from the future

He had lost it. The only… thing that could have helped him to get back to the base and the only thing that could have led the enemy to the base. It was such an important object and he simply lost it.

"It should still be in around here." Yamamoto muttered to himself, trying to make the best of this situation. The weird parachute-machine-tracker-thingy that he had lost shouldn't have been able to float too far away. It simply wasn't programmed to do that, but lately he was suspecting that the Neo Estraneo members were simply messing around when they invented the parachutes. Especially since the objects seemed to have a life on their own when no one paid attention to them.

Literally. When he forgot to put his parachute back in the storage box, the device was using the internet and he even caught the thing making hot chocolate once.

He remembered that Gokudera once tried to explain that they had some… program installed which gave every single parachute a personality that likes to mess around with the mind of human beings. Lal had a whole different theory, but Yamamoto never understood her grumblings. Not that he would ever ask the woman to repeat that theory, especially not after seeing that the topic could make her so pissed off.

Something happened and he didn't need to know what. Correction, he didn't want to know what. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" Yamamoto shuddered when he recalled memories of when Lal snapped… He had quite a few of those and some were scarier than other.

The Japanese man snapped out of his memories and looked up when he heard the suspicious movements from somewhere between the factory blocks. Yamamoto fastened his pace and carefully grabbed a few boxes. This was a dark grey area. One of the entrances of the secret base that Tsuna built should be somewhere around here, but that didn't mean that it was safe in the industrial terrain. On the contrary even. Who knew how many Millefiore-people could be lingering around?

"-re there two parachutes here?" Yamamoto heard someone say in a hushed voice and he ran a little faster while readying some of his boxes. The slightly familiar voice was definitely talking about his parachute… and another one, which hinted that the owner of the voice was an ally, but he could never be sure enough in these days. Not in this war. Not when Tsuna-

"Tsuna?" Yamamoto muttered. The words were carried away by the wind, but the teen- no, the two teens seemed to have heard it. "And Gokudera… no it can't be… you've shrunk?"

"No we aren't shrunk, baseball-idiot!" Gokudera hissed. Ah, still as hotheaded as always… he missed these guys.

"Typically… Yamamoto." Tsuna smiled relieved when he saw that nothing changed between his two friends… the only change was that one of the two was nine years and ten months older now.

…

"There it is." Yamamoto laughed when he notice his parachute floating next to another parachute. "I was afraid that I lost it."

"This is yours?" Tsuna asked.

"Technically spoken, these are borrowed from the Neo Estraneo but- ah, I probably wasn't supposed to say that." Yamamoto realized.

"We already know what happened to them." Gokudera frowned before glancing at the parachutes behind him.

"No, you don't." Yamamoto whispered, seeing the reaction that the silver haired teen had. If he really knew the situation as it was, he wouldn't have reacted so… mild.

"What did you say, Yamamoto?" Tsuna asked, but the older man simply shook his head. This wasn't his story to tell.

"Nothing."

"Ah, I almost forgot about it. Were you the one who caused that explosion?" Tsuna asked when he remembered Lal. "Lal-san ran that way." Yamamoto looked alarmed when Tsuna said that and looked around.

"No." Yamamoto frowned when he caught a glimpse of smoke somewhere behind some factory blocks. The man snapped his head to his parachute, which was still floating around the parachute of the younger versions of his friends , and whistled a short tune. The left parachute reacted and floated towards him, the other parachute simply followed. Strange, Yamamoto didn't know that the parachute were supposed to do that, but he never understood a lot about the parachutes. Even if they could act as simple as they looked like, they were more complicated than anyone would expect.

They were invented by the Neo Estraneo, that should explain everything. Those inventors always liked to add... interesting features to all of their inventions.

When his parachute was floating in front of him, Yamamoto opened one of his storage boxes to store the device. That way it couldn't get damaged in an eventual fight. "You guys should store your parachute away as well." He smiled when he saw the remaining parachute.

"…W-what was that?" Gokudera asked, looking completely flabbergasted at the box in Yamamoto's hands. Yamamoto frowned in confusion, but when he saw that Tsuna looked equally surprised he remembered that these boxes didn't exist back then in the good old times.

"That was a storage box." The man explained. "You can open these with the rings. Some of these boxes can store stuff, but there are boxes with weapons too… and… more!"

"So that is how you open these." Gokudera muttered as he pulled out some of the boxes which were in the suitcase of his older self. They wouldn't budge when he tried to open the boxes and he actually forgot to ask about them for a moment. After retrieving some of his rings which were left behind by his older version and the Vongola storm ring and slipping them on, he tried to open the boxes.

Nothing happened.

"You have to use dying will flames for that." Yamamoto laughed. He moved to explain it, but before he actually could explain it, another explosion shook the ground. This didn't feel quite right.

…

Lal pulled the teenager away just in time. The place they were standing in before was now a crater with the remains of dying will flames and the woman was positive that neither of the teens should have been able to get away in time without her interference.

"Aunt Lal!" Lambo coughed when the smoke dissipated enough for him to see what was going on. "Why are you outside?"

"No time for talking, kid." Lal responded while glaring at the two opponents. "I hope that you fulfilled your mission."

"I did, but are you fine outside?"

"No time to talk."

"Yes, aunt Lal."

"…This is the wrong arcobaleno, Tazaru-aniki." The smaller one of the two assailants scowled when he noticed the woman in the remains of the smokescreen.

"She _is_ on the hitlist though." The other assailant shrugged. "We should get rid of her."

"I'll take care of her then."

"Don't screw up, Nozaru."

"Like I will lose against a failed arc-" Nozaru tried to say, but he wasn't able to finish his sentence thanks to a burst of red flames that hit him.

"So that is how it works."

"Haha, how amazing. You know how to use the dying will flames already."

"Shut up, baseball-idiot. When you're almost hit by several illusions in a single training session you learn things that you didn't need to know… even though it did end up useful in the end."

"L-let's calm down, alright."

"Yes Juudaime."

"Sure Tsuna."

Nozaru gaped at the man and the teenagers who appeared out of nowhere and tried to understand what just happened. Before he could though, the flames underneath his shoes disappeared and he fell down.

"Who is taking care of who again?" Lal Mirch asked as she strolled towards the fallen guy while crackling her knuckles.

"Don't forget about me." The other man announced as he swung his scythe, but the attack was blocked.

"Shigure Souen Ryuu, the eight form."

…

"Let me check your boxes." Chrome ordered Yamamoto once everyone was sitting safely around the dinner table of the secret base.

"My boxes still work perfectly though?" Yamamoto laughed nervously as the younger woman put her empty hand in front of his face.

"It could be a clue." Chrome stated, earning another nervous laugh and the boxes from Yamamoto.

"If you don't mind me asking." Tsuna began hesitantly after the purple haired woman dashed to her somewhere else in the secret base.

"I don't mind." The fifteen years old Lambo laughed.

"Idiots don't have the right to talk." Lal grumbled, effectively shutting the laughing teen up. The woman grumbled something under her breath and stood up to go to wherever Chrome went to.

"…Eh-"

"Just say it Dame-Tsuna."

"Where are-"

"I-Pin, Kyoko-nee and Haru-nee are safe and sound. I made sure that they were safe until they were where they are safe." Lambo commented before Tsuna could finish his question.

"But… you told me that they were signaled as well." Tsuna turned to Reborn.

"They were on the screen." The hitman baby shrugged.

"I will explain it." Lambo stated. The teen rummaged around and put some boxes on the dinner table. "It could be this one… or this one. Maybe this one? Let's put them all on the table for now… Alright, one of these is-"

**BOOOOOM**

Pink smoke interrupted the teen and when the smoke was gone, Tsuna could only stare in horror at the younger version of Yamamoto and Lambo. Even more people from the past are here now…

…

"False hope again?" Lal asked as she walked into the room with the green painted walls. The eyepatched woman continued fumbling with the boxes before she put everything down with a sigh. After that, Chrome looked up from Yamamoto's boxes and numerous notes to smile wistfully at the scarred woman.

"You knew it before I did."

"Of course.' Lal sighed. "Zero can be very secretive if she wants to be. If you want clues that she could have left about her whereabouts, then you should look at places you won't expect them to be."

"I know." Chrome sighed. "I know."

"I'm surprised that you didn't ask for lambo's boxes too."

"I was actually about to do that."

"..."

"..."

"Come on, let's return to the dinner room before those guys end up doing something stupid like running out of the base again."

…

"…"

"Lal-san?"

"Correct me if I got it wrong." Lal groaned as she glared at the two who arrived from the past a few minutes ago. "Lambo was about to explain why Haru and Kyoko were signaled even though they weren't there, but before he could he transformed into a brat… again. Along with the rain guardian."

"Yes." Tsuna nodded hesitantly.

"And you want to know what is in these boxes?" Chrome asked as she picked up one of the boxes that Lambo left behind. Tsuna nodded in confirmation and Chrome put the box back on the table with a sigh. "I can't help you in that case."

"Why not, woman?" Gokudera asked.

"These are lightning boxes." Chrome explained. "There are seven kinds of dying will flames which can open the box that matches the flame. I'm a mist, this is a lightning box so I can't open it… I doubt that Lambo-kun can open it even though he is a lightning flame user, I'm pretty sure that he wasn't able to use his dying will flames at this age."

"Then… we'll never know why the girls were signaled even though they weren't there?" Tsuna panicked. He was already thinking of the possibilities that the enemy could use this to sneak up on them.

"We can find out." Chrome disagreed. "The sky flames can open the boxes of every attribute. You can open them, Tsuna-san."

"But I don't know how-" Tsuna began.

"Picture your resolve to support your sky as a flame." Gokudera muttered to himself.

"What?" Tsuna sweatdropped.

"That was what the midget said when she was training me." Gokudera explained. "She said that the duty of a guardian was to support the sky. Picture the resolve to support the sky as a flame, that was how I was able to ignite my rings"

"Kind of like this?" Yamamoto wondered out loud as he suddenly ignited his Vongola rain ring.

"H-how- I can't do that." Tsuna protested when the expectant gazes turned to him.

"He is right." Chrome nodded. "This method can only be used if you have a sky. If you don't have a sky or if you're a sky yourself, finding that resolve is more difficult."

"We have to find your resolve then, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn stated.

"M-my resolve?"

"What do you fight for? What makes you strong?" Reborn asked. "Thoughts like simply wanting to return to the past or wanting to defeat the enemy had never truly suited you. It isn't like you at all to think that way. Your thoughts and feelings are much simpler than that."

"Are you trying to insult me or trying to help me, Reborn?" Tsuna sweatdropped.

"What was your resolve when you was fighting Mukuro or when you were preparing to fight Xanxus?" Reborn asked, ignoring the rhetorical question.

"I don't remember-…" Tsuna began, but he shut up when a faint memory resurfaced.

'_They'd better survive this, who is going to protect the others otherwise?'_

What was his resolve to fight Mukuro? What made him to actually prepare to fight Xanxus? The answer had always been there, he just needed someone to remind him of it.

"To protect." Tsuna muttered in realization. He remembered when he heard this. Wasn't it all the way back when Mukuro invaded Nanimori? Back then, Zero was the one who reminded him… Reborn reminded him this time… maybe it was a sibling thing to remind him of his reason to fight? Tsuna almost shook his head in amusement when he was reminded how much the former siblings could be alike so now and then and looked up with new resolution.

To protect and safe everyone, including Zero even if no one knew where she was or what happened to her.

"Good answer. Is there anyone you want to protect right now?" Reborn smirked. Before the answer came, however, the Vongola sky ring was already burning with brilliant orange flames and Tsuna's eyes flashed in the same sunset color for a second.

"My friends. My family." Tsuna stated. "I want to protect them, find out what happened in the future and only return to the past after everything is resolved."

…

**Omake: parachutes**

"Is that what I think it is?" Chrome frowned when Tsuna opened the third box. The teen was hoping that this box contained something useful unlike the first two boxes that he opened. Those contained candy and candy wrappers, this one contained… another parachute.

"A parachute." Tsuna sighed.

"I'll decode it." Chrome nodded before grabbing the parachute and running away again.

"…Decode?"

"One of the reasons why Chrome can't be signaled outside is because she knows how to decode these parachutes." Lal explained as she gestured everyone to follow her to wherever Chrome disappeared to. "The data stored in every single one of these contain important information. This includes the information of the whereabouts of this base, information about locations that it had been in and more. Chrome is the only Neo Estraneo member left and the only one who knows how to get access to that information and that is why we're trying to hide her from the Millefiore."

Lal stopped in front of a door and pushed it open, revealing the green walls of the room and the woman who just finished decoding the parachute.

"Giannini meddled with this one." Chrome stated as she turned around in the stool she was sitting on. "It can fake a signal, plus it has the map to where most of the civilians connected to the mafia are right now."

"That is why the girls were signaled?" Reborn asked.

"Yes." Chrome nodded. "This parachute also has the information of the locations of all the secret stashes that Lambo has and a huge number of bills from candy stores from all over the world. I didn't know that he even bought candy from Spanner and that Spanner sold his candy to Lambo..."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Exams are still ongoing, but I managed to type this pretty quickly on my phone in between memorizing stuff I don't want to know. That's probably why there is a high chance of spelling or grammar mistakes in this chapter or something like that, but I needed to post it before I would continue revising this chapter over and over again (I know myself too well). More canon deviations this time and guess what? There are more plot deviations planned :D. It's funny how the presence of one extra character can change… or the lack of the character. I miss writing Zero…**

**You'll see, Reaper Senpai. Kufufufufufufu~**

**It was pretty fun to write it, so maybe I will, Alice aquabld :).**

**You can indeed safely assume that, KiraKiraBluemoon. The stranger is probably going to make another appearance in one of the future Sinclair omake's, which should explain what happened… probably.**

**That sounds like a pretty interesting idea, QuietSilence! Maybe I'll do an omake of that next time since I'm seriously missing writing Zero even though it has only been a few chapters since she 'disappeared' from the in the main story…**

**I did say that I would leave the identity to your imagination, mysterious guest number two ;P. and thank you :D**

**I have to thank all the other reviewers as well and I apologize if I don't answer every review. My exams are still ongoing and I'll need to return to my personal hell soon. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	51. Chapter 51

Chapter 48: revelations

"Kufufu, how _easy_ it is to defeat the Vongola Decimo." The man in front of Tsuna chuckled mirthlessly before tapping the floor with the blunt side of his trident. His mismatched eyes looked mockingly down on the smaller body of the brunet and he crouched down to look the fallen teenager in the eyes properly. "You're _weak_, Tsunayoshi Sawada."

The said teen couldn't only stare in confusion at the older man in front of him and wonder in what mess he had gotten into this time.

After explaining the situation to Yamamoto and Lambo, or at least attempting to explain it as well as possible, the only logical next thing to do was to ask Lal Mirch to train the teens from the past. The woman eventually agreed, but after only a single day of training another alarm went off which indicated that another guardian was signaled.

Or rather, his bird.

Apparently, Hibari decided to adopt Birds' bird after the battle in Kokuyo health land… which was surprising since Hibari, _the demon prefect_, didn't exactly look like the type to care for cute little animals. In the end, the unexpected soft side of the prefect was the reason why he was found, so no one complained. Reborn wanted that Tsuna and his friends from the past would retrieve Hibari, but someone disagreed with that action.

Estraneo-Dokuro Chrome.

The said woman all but dragged Tsuna away before he could leave the base with his friends and ordered the others to go on without him with her usual soft voice. She would take over his training for a moment for his own good, or so she said.

However, Tsuna had suspicions that it was someone else who borrowed Chrome's appearance at the time.

From what he had seen from the slightly timid woman, she didn't seem like the type of person who would drag him away from his friends without asking or explaining why he needs to come with her. She didn't seem like the type to point the sharp side of a suddenly materialized trident to his face either. Tsuna's suspicious grew larger once he saw that his surroundings, which was supposed to be a training room, had changed into the unfamiliar scenery of a forest. A forest that eerily resembled the place where he met Mukuro for the first time. And then, Chrome was shrouded in mist and Tsuna's suspicions were confirmed.

Mukuro replaced Chrome.

Correction, an older version of Mukuro who decided to fight him out of nowhere for a reason that Tsuna didn't know, replaced Chrome. Tsuna wasn't really given the time to think about it between the blows which were aimed to harm, not to kill, so he was confused. He was even more confused when his back hit the grass, when and how did he fall?

"M-Mukuro?" Tsuna finally managed to ask as he tried to stand up. "Aren't you in the Vindicare?"

"Since when did restrictions stop me from doing what needs to be done?" Mukuro retorted.

"..." Tsuna could only continuing staring at the seemingly annoyed man in confusion. What was he doing here? Did he possess Chrome? And if that is the case, did the woman know that she was possessed?

"I'm indeed possessing her and my dear Chrome has no idea that I'm doing this. It's for the better if she didn't know." Mukuro answered the unasked questions bluntly. He looked down on the teen in disdain and his hold on his trident tightened for a small second as some memories seemed to flash through his mind. Memories he clearly didn't like.

"W-Why?"

"Why am I possessing her? Why am I doing this? Oya oya, you have to be more specific with your questions, Tsunayoshi Sawada. But time answer both questions, have you seen the fragile emotional state that Chrome is in right now?"

"...I-"

"Of course you have. She isn't strong enough to say this herself and yet, it needs to be said." Mukuro scoffed. "If it wasn't for your future self, this didn't need to happen."

"What needs to happen?" Tsuna asked, he was still trying to understand what was happening, but the question in his mind simply escaped his lips.

"Think about your surroundings. Have you noticed which persons are taken to the future already? What connection they have with each other?"

"They all have connections with the mafia?"

"No, you fool. They're all carrying something important around." Mukuro glared. "All of them, minus the arcobaleno."

"No." Tsuna gasped in realization after pondering about it for a while. A while too long if you asked Mukuro since he was impatiently tapping the grassy ground with his trident. "The rings?"

"Yes, I see that you realized." Mukuro clapped mockingly, somehow without letting go of his trident as he moved his gloved hands.

"Does that mean that you'll be transported to the future too?" Tsuna asked warily.

"That is not the message I need to relay." Mukuro sighed in annoyance. "What I needed to say was what happened to the rings in the future."

"What happened to the rings in the future?" Tsuna asked hesitantly.

"Byakuran has them." Mukuro stated bluntly and Tsuna almost fell again, but this time because of shock. The enemy had the rings that they fought so hard for?

"What-"

"And at the same time, the future you has destroyed them." Mukuro continued almost casually. This only managed to confuse the speechless Tsuna more, even more than before. First Mukuro appears out of nowhere and fought him and then he told him that the Vongola rings were in Byakuran's possession, but at the same time destroyed? Just what was going on in the future?

…Or what happened in the future? What would happen? What already happened in the future?

"Why…" Was the only thing that Tsuna managed to ask while his brains were still trying to understand the information he was given by Mukuro. It didn't help that the timetravelling mechanisms were giving him a huge headache.

"Why do you think?" Mukuro asked back before sharply looking around in the surroundings of the forest, which was most likely an illusion. "I'm running out of time."

"Wait, I still have que-"

"Time's up, Vongola." Mukuro interrupted the brunet. "Just remember who was holding on the mist ring nine years and ten months ago."

"Wait!" Tsuna shouted, but the man already disappeared in mist. Mist that turned into pink smoke and an explosion. Tsuna decided right there and then that fate hated him or loved to make his life miserable.

…

"It seems that a lot of people have returned." Reborn nodded to himself in something akin to satisfaction when he saw that Giannini, Fuuta and Bianchi were following him to the infirmary. Even though Gokudera and Yamamoto were wounded during their mission, they managed to get Hibari and Kusakabe to the base. Actually, it was the other way around, but that didn't change the fact that the look on the war became so much more positive than before with more allies… Now Reborn only needed to know what was up with Chrome when she suddenly decided to drag Tsuna away.

It seemed like an urgent matter, so he allowed the woman to drag his student away... But that didn't mean that the woman didn't owe him an explanation.

Reborn finally reached the infirmary and opened the door, only to freeze up for a second and look at the younger appearance of the adoptive daughter of his little sister listening to Lal and an older Hibari in the back of the infirmary. Considering the almost horrified expression on her face, Reborn could safely assume that the two just told her what happened in the future. What could have happened in the future. What could have happened to her adoptive mother.

"R-Reborn!" Tsuna exclaimed once he noticed the hitman.

"What happened?" Reborn asked though he had a pretty accurate idea about the situation already.

"It was Chrome-san who had the mist ring, nine years and ten months ago." Tsuna rambled. "I almost forgot that Mukuro gave it till her for safekeeping until he felt that he was strong enough without it and-"

...

"What is this?" Chrome asked softly when the older version of the prefect pushed the object in her hands.

"The rabbit entrusted this to me." Hibari answered before deciding to leave for a less crowded place. "For safekeeping and to give it to you when I would see you."

"This is Zero's box, I recognize the design..." Lal realized once she got a good look at the white box in Chrome's hands. "This… must have been the clue you were waiting for."

"C-clue?" Chrome stuttered.

"The future you refused to believe that Zero would disappear without leaving a message or a clue." Lal nodded.

"This box?"

"Open it by igniting the ring with dying will flames and insert it right in there." Bianchi explained as she approached the smaller group in the back. She pointed to the hole in the box and opened her mouth to explain how to ignite the ring, but Chrome didn't need the explanation. As an illusionist she already knew how to use her dying will flames.

The box opened easily.

"A… parachute?" Chrome blinked in confusion. What kind of clue was a parachute? But even if she didn't understand it, the others in the room seemed to understand it. The heads of everyone who heard the word 'parachute' turned towards the back of the room and stared at the said object which was floating in the air.

"…This is… how bad of a timing could we all have?" Lal groaned.

"W-what is wrong L-Lal-san?" Chrome asked, still confused about the reaction that the parachute created.

"These are devices invented by the Neo Estraneo and the only person who could have gotten the information out of these devices… was the future you."

"T-this is-"

"This thing looks awfully familiar though." Lal mused as she took a better look at the floating object. The white parachute looked like every other parachute with just one small variation on the design. "This is one of the earlier designs."

"What does this mean?" Chrome asked hesitantly. Lal looked away from the parachute and looked straight at Chrome.

"This thing is Zero's, so this thing is indeed the clue that you were waiting for… but it is useless now. The information is lost."

…

"Hieee?! M- Oh wait, Chrome-san?" Tsuna breathed relieved when he recognized the pineapple shaped hair of the girl. In the darkness of the night he almost mistook the shape for Mukuro… which was actually pretty understandable since he was attacked by the man not too long ago. "What are you doing out here so late?"

"I… couldn't sleep." Chrome muttered and Tsuna couldn't help the sudden sympathy that he felt when he saw her expression when she said that. In the back of his head he wondered if this was what he looked like when he found out what could have happened to everyone he cared for, but he shook that thought out of his mind for a moment.

"I couldn't sleep either, on my first day here." Tsuna smiled. "But you- the future you gave me some hot chocolate and it managed to calm me down."

"I… think that I will… do that." Chrome nodded before running off, leaving Tsuna standing in front of the opened door to her room. Tsuna sighed and decided to give the girl some time alone, she looked like she needed it. The brunet moved to close the door to Chrome's room and noticed the small, but bright light from somewhere inside the green room.

The small lamp on the bureau was still on.

Tsuna sighed and walked in the room to shut the light, but before he did turn off the light he caught a glimpse of what Chrome had left on her bureau. Various pictures which made Tsuna realize why Chrome was looking like she was about to cry. She somehow managed to take photos from the Neo Estraneo household with her to the future. Pictures that showed how normal or abnormal the household could be.

The brunet smiled softly at the sight of the people around the dinner table and cringed at the sight of the colorful explosions. They really looked like one big family on some of the pictures though they looked like a group of mismatched friends in others. There were a few pictures which showed how Ken was glued to the ceiling of the kitchen, pictures of Chikusa who was practicing with his yoyo's and even pictures of M.M. who was digging through her wardrobe. The photos with Zero's uncles almost always included the albino girl and-

"Dame-Tsuna, what are you doing here?" Reborn asked and Tsuna finally tore his eyes away from the picture of which he didn't realize that he was holding in his hands.

"I-" Tsuna began, but the next words were stuck in his throat. What did he want to say? Why did he feel so… What was this feeling even supposed to be?

"Show me that picture." Reborn sighed and Tsuna didn't move when the hitman took the photo from his hand. The reaction of the babyfied brother was almost immediate. "He is dead."

"R-Reborn." Tsuna breathed when the murderous intent managed to snap him out of his shocked state. Or mostly out of it, the painful feeling was still there.

"What?" Reborn snapped.

"Mukuro- No, Zero-"

"I'm not blind, Dame-Tsuna. I can see that Zero is the one who is kissing Mukuro in this picture." Reborn almost growled as he glared at the picture. It was the almost shocked expression on Mukuro's face what made it clear that he wasn't the one who gave the kiss and that was what angered Reborn the most. Alright not the most, but close to that.

The hitman was still trying to make up a reason for the kiss apart from love, he did _not_ accept Mukuro, when he looked up and saw what Tsuna looked like.

"…You love her too, don't you." Reborn asked Tsuna, though it sounded more like a comment than a question.

"W-what are you talking about Reborn I-"

"Stop there, Tsuna." Reborn ordered. "Look in the mirror first, have you seen how you look like right now?"

"I-I like Kyoko-chan." Tsuna muttered.

"Then why do you look like that?"

"Like what?"

"Someone who just lost someone they loved."

"…I don't know, Reborn." Tsuna admitted as he turned his attention back to the pictures on the bureau and tried to figure out what he was feeling. It was a weird feeling, plain weird and he didn't like this feeling. He liked Kyoko. He loved how her smile brightened his world and how she was simply… nice. She was cute, accepted him for who he was and kind.

"You know, I think that Zero has a nice smile too." Reborn commented, easily guessing Tsuna's thoughts. "She is kind as well and she is cute."

"What are you talking about, Reborn?"

"Just comparing Kyoko and Zero."

"You shouldn't compare them." Tsuna sighed. "They're nothing alike."

"How so?"

"Zero… is fragile but at the same time strong. Not physically strong, but mentally and yet I can't help but feeling that she is constantly missing something in her life. Kyoko-chan is like the sun, she shines bright and lights up my life. Zero is like... a lonely mountain?"

"Excuse me?"

"N-no I didn't mean it like that, Reborn!" Tsuna denied when he saw that Leon was starting to transform. "If there is something she believes in, she will follow that. There is no way that she will let anything interfere with what she needs to do and that is why she is like a mountain. She can't be moved unless it is something she truly needs or want to do and that makes her as unpredictable as a mountain can be as lonely as a mountain could be. And yet, when you gain her trust..."

"Why aren't you continuing?" Reborn smirked.

"Why are you doing this?" Tsuna whispered.

"What?"

"You know what I mean, Reborn. Why are you letting me realize this? You told me to think twice before- you know..."

"Simple." Reborn shrugged before deciding to leave the room. "Rather you than Mukuro."

His work was done.

Tsuna watched the small back of his tutor turn around the corner and turned around to look at the other photo's on the bureau. On one of the pictures, Zero was sleeping on her desk in the middle of mountains of paperwork and Tsuna couldn't help but mentally finishing his explanation.

_When you're on the top of the mountain, you can see the world around you. You can see the numerous bright stars above the clouds, the northern light that makes even the darkest sky shine like jewels. Only when you're on the top of the mountain, you realize how beautiful it is._

Maybe, just maybe, Reborn was right.

He loved Zero.

…

Her hands trembled again and she gave up on making a decent cup of hot chocolate. Chrome looked at the shards of the cup and wondered why she wasn't able to keep calm anymore. Why she felt like she could relate to those shards. Broken, sure to be thrown away again. There was something in the shards that made her realize how fragile she actually was and how she used to be- no. Chrome forced herself to look away and walkest to the closest couch around.

She didn't want to think about it.

The girl ran her hand trough her hair and slumped against the soft material of the green seat. Chrome looked at the box again and wondered where everything seemed to have gone wrong in the future. Everything was just fine a little while ago, she remembered how she was just introduced to one of Zero's Famiglia members and how Zero decided to lock herself up to do her paperwork for some reason. Apart from that Chrome's lessons still continued and her daily life was back to as normal as it could be in the household where she lived.

How could it be that this household didn't exist anymore?

"What happened?" Chrome asked herself one last time before her worries drowned in drowsiness. Maybe she was more tired than she thought.

...

"Where am I?"

"Hmm? Chrome?"

"Who are you?"

"Well... this is an unexpected turn. Welcome to the cliff, Chrome. I guess that you can call me Alex for now."

...

**Omake: what happened in the party after winning the ring battles.**

"Why, Mukuro-sama?" Chrome asked the older teen. Mukuro looked at the girl and the mist ring in her hands and shrugged.

"Zero never used it. She became stronger without it, so I want you to hold on this until I feel like I'm strong enough."

"Are you sure that you aren't just running away from your duties as a mafia member?" Reborn asked. Mukuro looked at the babyfied hitman and smirked.

"That is for me to know and for you to find out." Mukuro said before he walked away from the party. "I actually wanted to give it to Zero, but I'd rather not remind her of her love rival."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Some people might wonder: why the fast update? The answer to that is quite easy: Half of this chapter was a part of the previous chapter and I had a day with no exams, guess what I did. I already explained that I would constantly revise the chapter if I didn't post it, right? This is the same case. Maybe I'll be replacing this chapter after the exam, Idk. I just really needed to post this as soon as possible, so I apologize for eventual spelling or grammar mistakes. Also, I'll be responding to the reviews later because my examless day is over :(. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	52. Chapter 52

Chapter 49: not what it seems

"Hmm? Chrome?" The stranger blinked in surprise and slight confusion when Chrome opened her eyes and scrambled backwards. This was not where she fell asleep, she realized as she tried to stand up. She remembered that she fell asleep on a couch, not on slightly yellowed grass that grew on a patch of land, connected to water with a cliff. She didn't remember falling asleep when the sun was setting, nor did she remember leaving the hideout and meeting this stranger.

In other words: it should be Chrome who should be surprised and confused, not the stranger in front of her. Chrome acted on the advice she once got from both Zero and Mukuro and materialized the weapon she was most familiar with when she was standing. The trident calmed her nerves a little and allowed her to think more clearly about her actions now she knew that she had something to protect herself with.

"Who are you?" Chrome asked with a soft, but calm and collected voice. Once again, she acted on the advice she once got from both her teachers and refused to look away from the unfamiliar honey brown eyes with the familiar warm, but tired look. A soft and almost inaudible laugh escaped the stranger, a sound which startled Chrome because it triggered vague memories. Chrome's determination to hit the stranger with an illusion and to run immediately afterwards wavered once she noticed that. She knew the stranger, or at least she knew someone who resembled the stranger, but she couldn't make a connection in her mind.

Her mind refused to make a connection, but it still gave her the empty memories that she should have gotten. What did the stranger do to her to cause that? Or was it that her own mind didn't _want_ to make the connection?

The stranger blinked again, this time with the confusion more visible than before, and noticed a few strands of the dark blonde hair. The stranger frowned and brushed the strands away, before the honey brown eyes widened in realization and the stranger barely stifled a soft, surprised and disbelieving laugh.

"Well... this is an unexpected turn." The stranger muttered in an unfamiliar voice which once again was so familiar to Chrome and the girl grasped the illusionary metal in her hand a bit tighter. She didn't like how she felt so at ease around someone who could possibly hurt her without anyone noticing. A person who could have kidnapped her, for all she knew. "Welcome to the cliff, Chrome. I guess that you can call me Alex for now."

"Alex?" Chrome muttered, frowning at the unexplainable feeling that she wanted to connect a different name to the face of the stranger. A name that she couldn't recall, no matter how much she tried to remember it. The name 'Alex' simply didn't sound right… and yet, 'Alex' didn't sound like a fake name to the stranger.

Chrome observed the person, who she could only call Alex for now despite the protests of her uncooperative mind and took a wary step backwards, towards the deep cliff that separated the patch of grassy land and the crashing waves. Who was this Alex and what did the stranger want from her?

"I… didn't know that I still identified myself as… this, even after all these years." Alex sighed.

Chrome got the feeling that she wasn't meant to hear those soft and almost sad sounding words.

Alex tugged hesitantly on another strand of hair and smiled a melancholic smile at the dark golden color of it before brushing it away. This time, the blonde looked down at the yellowing grass before beginning to musing in a language that Chrome couldn't recognize. No, wait. She did faintly recognize the language.

Italian.

After living in the Neo Estraneo household for a little while, it was almost inevitable that Chrome learned some Italian words since almost everyone who lived there used to live in Italy. A few words from the Italian musings were recognized, but it didn't make a lot of sense to Chrome.

"-Interesting…...Miss them…. Would have a field day…Messed up again….time-"

From what Chrome could understand from the gibberish, Alex was interested in something, missed some people, someone would have a field day, someone messed up and time was running out.

"Hmm, maybe I just unconsciously know that I don't have a lot of time and chose to take the form I recalled first? That would explain this nostalgic appearance." Alex decided in Japanese with a defeated sigh. "One would think that someone would identify themselves as who they are now after all those years."

"This is not your real appearance?" Chrome asked, raising her illusionary trident in an offensive stance.

"Calm down." Alex shushed while slowly raising their hands in the universal gesture of harmlessness or unwillingness to fight. Chrome indeed calmed down a little, but didn't like the fact that her emotions were starting to betray her. She shouldn't feel so at ease around this Alex. "But let's put that aside. How are you doing Chrome?"

"H-how I'm d-doing?" Chrome stuttered, almost completely caught of guards by the simple question.

"Yes. How are the people in the future treating you? And has Kyoya given you the box yet- that was a stupid question, of course he has. You wouldn't be here if he didn't. You're pretty early though."

"…They have been treating me nice, I guess?" Chrome sweatdropped to stop the questions. Something about this Alex reminded her of someone, but her mind still refused to make the connection between this stranger and the person she was reminded of.

And she was early?

_For what?_

Alex gave Chrome a bright and sparkling smile, successfully distracting Chrome from her thoughts. The trident in her hands was almost forgotten as she almost dropped it out of her weak grasp, but she noticed in the last moment and clutched the now warmer illusionary material tighter. Was this the goal of Alex? Distracting her and letting her drop her weapons on her own volition?

"Great." Alex nodded in genuine satisfaction and relief, Alex ignored the clear confusion and wariness on the face of the eyepatched girl in favor of looking towards the setting sun behind chrome. A sun which was already halfway hidden by the vast amount of surely illusionary water, creating small and haunting shadows on the rocky surface behind the blonde. Suddenly Chrome realized that everything around her was illusionary. The landscape, the small breeze of fresh air and even the person in front of her.

Alex was an illusionist.

The trident was now the only thing which allowed Chrome to breath normally, the weapon was her only support. This stranger was an illusionist and this place was undoubtedly the playground of the said illusionist. Chrome was trapped. The girl unconsciously took more steps backwards and looked for a way out, but the cliff had no entrances or exits she could find at the moment.

"I was afraid that the recordings would have given some… _reactions_." Alex muttered.

"The recordings?" Chrome frowned, she found herself caught off guards again and took another step backwards. She didn't like how Alex could calm her down enough to let her forget about her troubles with a few simple words.

"Are you telling me that you haven't seen it yet?" Alex frowned back. "I did give Kyoya the right box, didn't I?"

Kyoya? _Who?_

"Sorry, you probably still know him as Hibari-san." Alex smiled sheepishly, barely concealing a shiver at small memories.

Hibari-san… oh, _Cloudman_. Didn't he give a box? Or…

"A box with a parachute."

"…Parachute?"

Chrome's eyes widened when she realized that she said it aloud and prayed that the stranger wasn't an enemy. If Alex was, then the chances of finding Zero would become even smaller than it already was… And yet, Chrome couldn't help but feel that this wasn't the case.

"…But I didn't- Wait, describe the parachute."

"It is a white one with a small indigo flame in it instead of a normal flame?" Chrome answered hesitantly with eyes that widened even more at the realization that she was willingly giving the information away. Another step backwards was taken and Chrome looked for a way out again, but once again it was in vain. The only way out that Chrome could see was the end of the cliff behind her, which she approached with every step she took backwards, but she wasn't planning on jumping.

And yet, if she didn't have a choice…

"I gave the right box then, fortunately enough." Alex sighed relieved at the fact. "H- the… parachute should have delivered a video, but I guess that you simply haven't seen that yet."

"But there is no one who can decode the parachute to get the information out of it." Chrome almost whispered half unwillingly and half willingly, which made her take another step backwards. She shouldn't be saying this, but why did it feel… right to? "Not anymore because I'm here."

"Have you tried asking the parachute?" Alex asked.

"Asking?" Chrome was caught off guards again.

"Yes, try to ask the parachute."

"It doesn't need a code?"

"A 'please' would suffice, I guess." Alex stifled another laugh and smiled at the confused purple haired girl with a warmth that almost made Chrome remember who she was reminded of when she looked at Alex. Almost, her mind still refused to make the connection for some reason. "Hope might be a bit fickle right now, considering that this parachute is your only hint that I intended to leave behind, but things will be alright. I promise, my dear Chrome."

And Chrome couldn't help but to believe the promise…

No.

_It couldn't be._

"We're out of time." Alex- no. Zero admitted with a small apologetic smile. The small and haunting shadows started to come closer and almost reached the feet of the stranger. A stranger who despite the unfamiliar appearance simply couldn't be a stranger anymore.

"No wait-" Chrome tried, but she was interrupted by a gentle shove of the dark blonde who was suddenly in front of her.

"I'm sorry, Chrome." Zero whispered as her unfamiliar figure was engulfed by the shadows. "Everything will be fine."

"Zero-"

"I promise, my dearest daughter."

And Chrome fell from the cliff.

…

"Zero!" Chrome shouted as she shot up in the couch she was sleeping in. The girl looked franticly around and almost jumped up in shock when she saw the worried stare. The memories of what happened rushed through her mind and Chrome's eyesight started to become blurry without really knowing why.

Why did the dream give her hope that she wasn't actually supposed to have? Or was it worse and did the dream show what actually happened to Zero?

"Are you alright, Chrome?" Reborn asked when he saw the tears falling down the cheek of the eyepatched girl.

"Y-yes." Chrome sniffed. "Everything will be fine… won't it?"

"…It will be." Reborn promised in a reluctant attempt to prevent more tears from falling.

"What's the time?"

"It's almost morning." Reborn admitted. "I was trying to think of ways to dispose of Mu- I mean, you looked like you were having a nightmare and you simply wouldn't wake up when I tried to shake you awake."

"Not a nightmare." Chrome answered as she looked down at the box in her hand. "Maybe…"

She wasn't sure why she opened the box and summoned the parachute again, but she was allowed to have hope, right?

"Could you please show me what Zero-chan wanted to show me?" Chrome asked the floating object. "Please…"

Everything went black as the last word left her lips.

…

"Test, test." The words echoed through the darkness.

"Camera three and seven are still malfunctioning, but the microphone is working just fine." Another voice added and more voices joined the echoes in the darkness.

"Camera two to five are at their posts, how is camera one doing?"

"Camera one is low on power, can someone pass me a screwdriver?"

"Here you go."

"Camera three is fixed."

"Seven is done too."

"Wait a minute… one is ready and on its post. We're ready to test them all now."

"Test, test." Something made a whirring sound and suddenly, a blinding flash of light disappeared as fast as it appeared. Several men and women were looking up at something invisible and wrote on notepads in an almost furious speed about what they saw. Or rather, what they didn't see.

"All fixed." One of the men nodded as he checked the air… or something in the air.

"Is everything working?" Another man asked.

"All the cameras are stable and working." A woman grinned. The grin was quickly adapted by the others and soon, the inventors were cheering.

"Kufufufu, alright guys, good job." A white haired woman laughed, her voice barely audible between the cheerful claps. "let's see if Verde can beat invisible and soundless camera's."

"Zero-sama, please don't jinx us." A brunet in the group reprimanded fondly.

"Hmm, you're right, uncle Seth. I really shouldn't have jinxed it." Zero smiled sheepishly before turning to the grey haired man. "What is the next thing on my schedule, uncle Chris? After making sure that we'll beat Verde this year, of course."

"I don't think that you've the time for that." Chris informed. "You have a meeting with the Vongola and the Gesso later today."

"Perfect, I don't think that they would mind it if I take the cameras along for some test-runs." Zero grinned. "Not that they will notice a thing if the cameras stay invisible of course. Aren't we lucky that this year's theme was spying?"

"Are you sure that we can simply record a meeting between mafia bosses, Zero?" Chris asked.

"Well, maybe it isn't the smartest thing." Zero admitted. "But what is more important? Risking being found out that I recorded a meeting between bosses who could easily be described as friends or beating Verde in the annual inventing contest for once?"

"…Beating Verde it is."

"Good luck, Zero-sama." Joseph laughed.

"Kufufufu, count on me to record everything and not to be noticed."

…

**Omake: annual inventing contests**

"…How did it end up like this?" I sighed when yet another robot joined in to extinguish the fire. It all began as a simple conversation between Verde and some of my Famiglia members, how could it have ended up like _this_?

"In my defense, I wasn't the only one who went all out this time, Nemo." Spanner informed, not really sounding like he was feeling guilty for almost destroying half of the town where he lived in. He probably felt less guilt than me, the person who didn't destroy anything but also the person who could have stopped this madness if the paperwork was done faster.

"Do you want to add something to that, Verde?" I asked the baby on the shoulder of the blonde teen.

"We should do it more often, it was fun." The green haired arcobaleno nodded.

"Robot battles that threatens Silicy are fun?" I asked incredulously, though I was probably using the improper words to describe this madness. I would have used 'terrorizes' instead of 'threatens' if I could, but the people who lived in Silicy absolutely loved the show they were provided. Sometimes I wondered what went wrong with this town.

"The annual robot battles sounds like an interesting event." Spanner nodded.

"No." I frowned. "No robot battles, unless we have a reason to use robots to fight each other."

"Isn't 'fun' a good reason?" Spanner shrugged.

"Not if it destroys half of the place we practically seen live in." I deadpanned.

"Then what about something less destructive and equally fun?" A passerby who coincidentally heard our conversation asked.

"I'm listening, Taddeo." Spanner nodded to the old man.

"What about an annual inventing contest with the townspeople of Silicy as the judges. Less damage will be done, but everyone can still compete with each other and have fun."

"Taddeo… I think that you sparked the competitive spirit that I've been trying to tone down in all my years as the boss of the Neo Estraneo…"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Now my exams are finally over… my teachers decided to give me more projects which are due in this month… which is almost over. Why school? Why? But in the end, I somehow managed to write this chapter. It was really difficult to write and even then, it was a short chapter. I don't know why this chapter ended up like this, but I suspect that this chapter is kind of a bridge to the next chapter which will give a lot of hints of what happens/happened to Zero in the future arc ;). **

**Because I'm actually supposed to work on one of my projects at the moment (even though I took a 'break' to finish this chapter), I will respond to most of the reviews as compact as possible:**

**Pairing: not telling kufufufu, I have a lot planned though :P**

**Love rival: it was Daemon as explained in one of the earlier chapters ;)**

**School/exams: I truly hate it and wish that they would stop giving me more projects.**

**Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	53. Chapter 53

Chapter 50: Byakuran

"It's good to see you, Ze-chan!" a cheerful voice greeted from the table filled with mountains of sweets. "Or not actually, since I can't actually _see_ you, but you know what I mean."

"Hello Byakuran." Zero chuckled in the direction where the voice of the man who greeted her came from. "You know, sometimes I wonder if we're really mafia bosses when I look at the food on the table… and how you're able to avoid the dentist or getting fat with all the sugar you eat." She gestured to the piles of sugary confections on the table which only allowed the white spiky hair of the man to be visible to her as if to emphasize her point.

"I have good genes." Byakuran shrugged before moving some of the sugary confections away to reveal a chair for the albino woman. "It's really good to 'see' that you aren't buried under your paperwork again, Ze-chan. Tsunayoshi-kun and I had a hard time with contacting you for a long while~"

"For the last time, I don't do this on purpose, Byakuran." Zero pouted before sitting down on the offered seat. "I can't help it that my Famiglia is kind of destructive and that they create massive amounts of paperwork because of that. Actually, now I'm talking about destructive people, Tsuna won't be able to attend this meeting because of an… accident in the Vongola mansion."

"An accident? Isn't that an everyday occurrence there?"

"It was a very unfortunate accident involving _certain_ guardians who happened to cross each other's path. I'm sure that the results weren't pretty, even though I haven't seen the aftermath myself… Apparently, I wasn't allowed to come close to the mansion." Zero muttered the last part, but Byakuran seemed to hear it anyways.

"Very funny, Ze-chan. _You_ of all people aren't allowed to come close to the mansion? That is the worst lie you can come up with." He snickered. "Though I can see the pineapple and the angry bird doing that."

"It's true though. I wasn't even allowed to come close to the gates." Zero huffed in annoyance.

"And since when have the gates stopped you from being able to get in the mansion?"

"Since Kyoya was there to stop me." Zero explained before straightening in her seat and blinking in realization. "Now I'm thinking about it, I haven't been allowed to get close to the mansion for quite a while already. Every time I come close to that place lately, a guardian is there to stop me… It's almost like Tsuna ordered them to stop me, but I was stopped by _Kyoya_ today and that guy doesn't follow his orders... Or any orders."

"If Tsunayoshi-kun got his cloud to agree to his orders, then it must be a serious case…" Byakuran mused.

"And I haven't seen Tsuna himself for a long while, now I'm thinking about it. The last time I saw him was… well… in our last meeting! Is he avoiding me?"

"He's _avoiding_ you?" Byakuran almost laughed. "Now you have to be joking, Tsuna isn't someone to give up so easily."

"Give what up?"

"…Forget that I mentioned that."

"…Sure. But, to answer your question, I do think that Tsuna is avoiding me for some reason. Maybe it has something to do with conflicts within the Vongola or something like that… I'm pretty sure that Xanxus calmed down over the years, but the possibility of him trying again is still there. What do you think, Byakuran?" Zero asked, slightly slumping in her seat at the mention of being avoided.

"I'm not sure. Maybe he is avoiding you with a good reason, he could simply be too busy to meet us though." Byakuran shrugged, leaning towards the woman after the gesture and petting her shoulder in a comforting way. "Either way it's his loss that he misses the opportunities of spending time with you. With us. More sweets for the two of us."

"Unlike you, Byakuran, I don't really have the genes that prevents me from getting fat." Zero pointed out while glancing at the food on the table. She offered the older man a small smile to show her gratitude for the comfort and shook her head in slight defeat. "Not getting ill? Sure, I'm as healthy as possible. But getting fat? Sadly enough, no. My genes aren't that convenient… Sometimes not at all, even. I'm not even able to get drunk if I want to be, so I can safely say that my genes aren't convenient at all."

"No way, you have great genes." Byakuran disagreed, turning his violet eyes to the equally purple eyes of the woman. "I would like to point out that you have never been fat in all the years that I've known you. Actually, you've been perfect since the moment I saw you and over the years you've only grown to be more beautiful and amazing, Zero."

"…You know, I still think that you're complimenting yourself whenever you say something that since we kind of look alike." Zero laughed. "But thank you for cheering me up anyways."

"We do look a little bit alike, don't we?" Byakuran agreed.

"Kufufufu, a little? Do you remember the last time that the three of us decided to hold a meeting in a restaurant instead of here?"

"I believe that there are still rumors about Tsunayoshi-kun having a marriage meeting with someone from the Gesso family." Byakuran nodded with a very forced closed-eyed grin which appeared even more strained when he remembered something else. "There are still some rumors circulating which state that you're my long lost illegitimate _daughter_, which is completely ridiculous if you ask me. Our age difference isn't _that_ big, just a few years even."

"It's not weird why they thought that I was related to you though, considering that our appearances are kind of…" Zero mused before looking in the pale purple eyes of the man next to her with a hint of amusement behind the clear exasperation. "I can't blame the people who keep on making the same mistake, even though I want to blame someone. Not everyone has white hair and purple eyes after all. It's a rare occurrence that two _unrelated_ strangers who have those features meet and happened to have the same kind of job as well. It's kind of a strange turn of fate, isn't it?"

"Maybe it is indeed because of fate that we were able to meet." Byakuran agreed absentmindedly, meeting the eyes of the woman with his own amused glint in his eyes. "And I'm glad that we did. I've found out that a world without you simply isn't the same… _literally_." The man whispered the last word like he didn't want his fellow mafia boss to hear it and he was successful in that.

"Hmm, a world without me, you say?" Zero wondered out loud, completely missing the whispered part because of her current train of thoughts. "I wonder if the Vongola is still in one piece without me in that world."

"Somehow it is." Byakuran laughed, though Zero started to notice that the usually cheery tone of his laugh was absent. "It's not the same without you, Ze-chan, but the Vongola is still fine. Different, but still the same almighty Vongola as it always has been and always will be… probably."

"That doesn't really make sense, you know?"

"It never does and yet, it is how it is." Byakuran agreed with a hint of bitterness in his voice that didn't manage to escape Zero.

"Are you sure that you're alright Byakuran? You're acting weird." Zero frowned at the uncharacteristic responses she got. She leaned forwards to measure the temperature of Byakuran's forehead with the back of her right hand and frowned once again when she didn't feel anything off. "Is the sugar finally getting to your head?"

"Not really~" Byakuran hummed half amused and half serious. He gently took Zero's hand in his and squeezed slightly as if to tell her that he was fine, but she didn't believe him.

"Not really?" She asked softly, pulling her hand away and moving it towards his head to measure his temperature again, just to be sure. This time, the male gently pushed her hand away before grabbing one of the opened bags from the table and offering it to Zero.

"Marshmallow?"

"You're avoiding the question, Byakuran." The albino woman commented, still taking one of the fluffy candies from the plastic bag despite the clear frustration in her voice. "And so does Tsuna. I initially didn't notice it because of work, but you guys keep more secrets from me these days."

"I'm sure that we all have our own reasons for doing that." Byakuran smiled, apparently unfazed by the words of the sulking woman.

"So you _have_ a reason for avoiding the question?" Zero asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion at the answer before chewing on her marshmallow.

"Of course I have~" Byakuran hummed and Zero almost choked on her marshmallow because of the casual response.

"A-and you're not planning on telling me that reason, right?" She managed to say between the coughs.

"Actually, I was." Byakuran grinned, gaining the full attention of his fellow mafia boss. The man hid an amused laugh behind his bag of marshmallows at the amusing reactions he got from Zero before continuing. "Have you ever heard of the tri-ni-sette?"

"The tri-ni-sette?" Zero frowned. "Isn't it a song? I believe that I heard it… once upon a time."

"Actually, it's the key to ultimate power~"

"I'm pretty sure that it's a lullaby, Byakuran." Zero sweatdropped though she sounded unsure at the moment. "_The Sea knows no bounds. The Clam passes down its form from Generation to Generation. The Rainbow appears from time to time before fading away_… If I remember the lyrics right. It's just a song, not… a key to ultimate power."

"You don't believe it?" Byakuran asked with a cheerful laugh with no real emotion as he raised his hand in front of his face. "I even have the proof of it right here."

"Your ring?"

"The sky mare ring, yes."

"Mare as in… sea? Does that mean that the Vongola rings are the clams which are mentioned in the song?" Zero laughed nervously, slowly inching away from the sudden change in demeanor of the white haired man.

"And the pacifiers of the arcobaleno are the rainbow." Byakuran nodded, his smile growing wider when he saw the realization dawn on Zero.

"And what are your plans for the tri-ni-sette?" She asked. Byakuran chuckled at the quiet tone she used and leaned forwards to the younger woman.

"Maybe taking over the world?" He whispered in her ear.

"…Really funny, Byakuran." Zero stated, suddenly standing up from the chair and taking a big step backwards. She didn't sound like she found it funny at all, but Byakuran apparently did.

"I am serious, Zero~"

"You don't sound serious." Zero snapped. "And taking over the world? What are you thinking?"

"Oh, good that you ask." Byakuran exclaimed, clapping his hands in realization and standing up as well. "I was just thinking that you could perfectly help me with my plans." He smiled pleasantly while approaching the woman who was starting to make her way backwards.

"Your plans of taking over the world?"

"Indeed, I'm glad that you understand~"

"No."

"I'm afraid that you don't have a real choice." Byakuran hummed as he grabbed Zero's arm before she could move away any further. "You see, you're the only person who has the trust of the Vongola _and_ the most suspecting members of the arcobaleno. Meaning that you're the best candidate to retrieve the Vongola rings, the lightning pacifier, the mist pacifier and the sun pacifier."

"You can't make me doing it, Byakuran."

"You're wrong~" Byakuran disagreed. "I can… _and I will._"

…

For a little while, Chrome could only blankly stare at the parachute after the recording was over. The last words of the man who looked a little bit like Zero echoed through her mind as she slowly allowed her dying will flames to embrace her for comfort.

"What happened?" She whispered to the parachute that apparently decided that it was its job to comfort the girl. "Please don't tell me that this is all what happened to Zero-chan. Please tell me that she's safe. That she is fine."

"Chrome… a robot can't answer your questions." Reborn stated regretfully before pulling his fedora over his eyes. "Zero… she at least managed to give us this message. What happened afterwards is a mystery that we have to solve ourselves."

"Please." Chrome asked again.

"Chrome…"

"I just want to- no, I _need_ to know what happened."

"So do I." Reborn agreed before glancing at the parachute, which was still hovering around Chrome. The invention still tried to calm down the girl by hopelessly floating up and down, but Reborn noticed that it actually worked a little. Chrome's flames which surrounded her were slowly disappearing and before Reborn knew it, Chrome was back to sleeping on the couch.

"Thank you." He nodded to the parachute. "For calming her down and for showing us that message."

The parachute almost appeared to be surprised at the words, but Reborn wrote it off as his imagination. It wasn't like parachute could show emotions, no matter how weird the people who invented said parachute were.

The people who didn't exist anymore.

What happened indeed?

…

**Omake: hot chocolate with marshmallows **

It was a pretty beautiful day outside and it would have been a shame if I had to do my paperwork inside… or so I thought before my Famiglia acted on their own and banned me from doing my paperwork. Now I was still sitting inside, but instead of sitting behind a desk, I was sitting in a café because banning me from my paperwork apparently banning me from entering our base.

"One hot chocolate, please." I ordered with a sigh. I loved my Famiglia, I really did, but sometimes they simply didn't make sense. Even after being their boss for fourteen years, I had trouble with understanding their love for destructions. Somewhere I could still understand their love for inventing and creating stuff, but their love for destruction could be dimmed down a little. Or a lot, actually. A nineteen years old woman could only handle that much paperwork before being driven crazy.

The waiter returned with my order and I focused on the cup which was placed on my table. Maybe I needed to stop worrying about my mafia business and relax like my Famiglia ordered me to do. They really wanted me to relax, considering how they literally forced me away from our base and ordered me to avoid the Vongola and my students for today… But they acted a bit too suspicious for me to relax.

They wanted me to avoid my friends and my paperwork to the point that I wasn't allowed to return before Monday. What was my Famiglia planning to do in the weekend? The only special days in this weekend were… I could only think of valentine's day which was on Sunday's, but there was no real reason to force me out of the base for that.

_It wasn't like I would receive love letters disguised as paperwork or something like that._

I laughed at the ridiculous idea of having to sign love letters instead of paperwork and returned my attention to the hot chocolate that I ordered. My Famiglia was weird and they acted suspicious, but that didn't stop me from loving them for the weird people they were.

"Personally, I think that hot chocolate tastes better with marshmallows." Someone mentioned. My head shot up in surprise and I gaped at the man across the table. Sure, I didn't notice anyone approaching which was a little surprising, but what really made me gape at the man across me was his appearance.

"…Marshmallows do taste good with hot chocolate, but I prefer it plain. Like my brother likes his coffee without any additions." I breathed while still eyeing the appearance of the man with surprise.

"Blasphemy!" He laughed cheerfully. "I couldn't believe that we're not related to each other first, but now I'm convinced. Nice to meet you, female Byakuran."

"Hmm… nice to meet you too, male Zero." I grinned back when the surprise was starting to fade away. "And who says that we aren't related to each other?"

"If you really were related to me, you would have been in the mafia." He nodded while gesturing to the shirt that he was wearing.

"Nice shirt, kufufufu." I laughed at the printed words on the shirt. "I can see that you're involved with criminal organizations because your shirt says 'I'm in the mafia'… You know, I think that the typeface kind of ruined the intended effect."

"No way, comic sans is awesome."

"It is." I smiled at the man who strangely looked like me. I never met someone with the same pale purple eyes like mine before… though, it the thought of pale purple eyes jolted an old memory in my mind. "…Gesso?"

"What did you say?" Byakuran asked with slightly wider eyes.

"Are you a Gesso?" I asked, remembering the many times that people asked whether I was a Gesso or not.

"How did you know?" Byakuran asked. "My name is Byakuran Gesso."

"…Nice to meet you, fellow mafia boss." I nodded after recovering from the second time that I've been surprised this day. "My name is Estraneo Zero, the Neo Estraneo Primo."

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I know, I know, I'm late with this update. But in my defense, I didn't expect how busy 2016 was going to be for me. I'm afraid that updates will be slow in general in 2016 :(. On the brighter side, I've written this chapter? There're a lot of hints about what happened to Zero in this chapter. I wonder if anyone already knows what happened? Feel free to try and guess kufufufu.**

**Those are really interesting ideas, HaPPy2901… it somehow makes me get the feeling that I want to write more about Alex's timeline too. Maybe later :P. And about her former love life… maybe you'll find out about it somewhere in the upcoming arcs kufufu.**

**It's almost been an entire year since I started this fic and somehow I managed to get 450+ reviews before its birthday too… I really feel flattered. Let me reward you, my readers (and reviewers :D)**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 23**

"Tch, wasted another bullet." Renato grumbled he saw who he actually hit. He looked away from the unconscious moron and looked into the crowd of human beings in the hope to find his younger sister.

Not for the first time today, he decided that he hated valentine's day.

It wasn't that he didn't get any chocolate, but he hated how their school organized a fair because of valentine's day and how the fair was too popular to his liking. Renato and Renata already lost their parents in the beginning of the fair, though Renato suspected that they were still watching them from somewhere, and somewhere in the middle of the event, even Renata disappeared in the crowd.

And then he was mobbed by a horde of fangirls, who gave him more chocolate than he would be able to eat in a lifetime, and afterwards… _certain_ people managed to find him. He really tried to avoid these people, but apparently trying wasn't enough.

One of those certain people were shot down already… twice. Renatus failed to tell his son that his gun had fake bullets because he knew about the sistercom- overprotectiveness of his son. The man didn't want to risk any dead members of the mafia, but he didn't want that his son was without any weapon to protect himself with either.

That was why Renato got a gun with three bullets. Correction, a gun with three _fake_ bullets.

Sometimes, Renato hated how his father seemed to know him so well.

Still, Renato was a trained hitman, or actually a hitman in training but it was the thought that counted, so even with fake bullets he managed to shoot one of the annoying people unconscious. Twice. One would think that you would give up chasing after someone after being shot, but no. not this moron. There was a reason why Renato hated most of the people in his class.

Renato had hidden three times from another horde of fangirls and safely evaded his classmates for another three times before he found Renata again and even then he ran into someone from his class. The one he wanted to keep Renata away from the most.

"Reborn! I'm here." Renata waved at him before he could pull out his gun again. The weapon felt a bit heavier than it normally felt in its holster when Renato approached his little sister and the badly disguised Chinese guy.

Really, the disguise was _really_ bad. Renato recognized the transfer student in a matter of seconds. The purple robes in contrast to his usual red ones even had the same model and patterns, the only good thing about his disguise were the huge and gaudy glasses and the hat. To say the truth, even those objects weren't really worthy of being called a disguise, but it seemed to work for Renata.

The girl who normally fled for the Chinese transfer student as soon as he appeared simply thanked him with a bright smile and ran to her brother. Her brother who decided to not to shoot the last fake bullet at him because of one simple reason.

Pity.

He really pitied the Chinese teen for having to take the full force of unconscious mafia-seduction. Especially since Renata was the one who performed it. Renato had been at the receiving side of the smile before and he knew how the strong the blunt force of that smile was.

Then he saw the blush blossoming behind the glasses.

Nevermind, shooting the Chinese transfer student made him feel a lot better in the end.

**Or in which Fo- I mean the Chinese transfer student was caught by the full force of mafia seduction. I really had too much fun by imagining what happened during the fair. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	54. Chapter 54

Chapter 51: absentee tutors

The fact that Tsuna had to train by fighting against Hibari, his strongest guardian and someone who he would never want to fight against in his entire life because he actually wanted to live, was already one reason for Tsuna to want to complain about how unfair his life was, but of course it had to be worse for him. It was always something worse for him when Tsuna and his life were mentioned in the same sentence. If it wasn't bad enough that he had to fight the demon of Nanimori, or even worse than that:_ the older and stronger version of the demon of Nanimori,_ he had someone watching him during his training.

_Why is she here anyways_, Tsuna asked himself as he allowed himself to look at the girl sitting in the corner of the training room. Tsuna didn't mind anyone to watch his training anymore, not after being exposed to Reborn's kind of training, but he _did_ mind the fact that it was Estraneo-Dokuro Chrome who watched him.

Zero's adoptive daughter.

Tsuna just realized that he might feel more for Zero than just friendship- no, that wasn't it. Why was it so complicated? Yes, he _like_ liked Zero, he recently realized that, but that wasn't all of it. He realized that Zero was not only his only sane friend, but also Reborn's sister in a former life.

_Reborn's sister._

He was going to die after all this for liking her.

No, not that wasn't it either. Although it did play a huge role in this complicated mess, that wasn't the only reason why the situation was so complicated for Tsuna.

Zero was eleven.

No- wait, that wasn't all of it either… but still. She was eleven which made him almost feel bad about liking her in that way. Almost. Tsuna knew that Zero was Reborn's sister in a former life, which meant that she was actually supposed to be older. Plus, he remembered Reborn's words.

Rather him than Mukuro.

Which must have meant that Mukuro felt the same way and Tsuna was pretty sure that this guy was older than him. Several lifetimes even… and then he remembered. Mukuro was able to take over the body of the girl who was still sitting in the corner of this training room. Meaning that the mist could appear at any time when he showed that he liked Zero in that way and kill him, so he had to get his act together whenever Chrome was in the vicinity.

And Tsuna wasn't ready to face the adoptive daughter of his crush yet, but that was just a detail.

While everyone left for their own training, Chrome didn't leave with a tutor. She didn't even get a tutor to train with so she stayed and focused her only visible eye on his training. It was almost unnerving how observant she looked even though there was a parachute floating around her.

…Right, the parachute.

The parachute which was still floating and twirling around the purple haired girl.

Tsuna knew that it was one of the inventions that had helped them quite a few times already, but he was still wary of any of these floating objects. The voice in his head warned him to look out for these things, as if it would bother him a lot in the future or like it already had bothered his future self a lot…

Or as if especially _this_ specific parachute bothered his future self a lot.

Suddenly, as if the parachute read Tsuna's mind, it stopped its graceful twirling to look at the brunet without real eyes to actually see. Just in time to avoid the invisible gaze of the machine, Tsuna turned his head forwards. Tsuna felt the nonexistent eyes burn in his back and resisted the urge to shiver and cry because of how his life ended up.

What went wrong with his normal life where he didn't have to fight misunderstood villains, travel to the future, handle a crush on someone who was three years younger than him and feel like a deer caught in the headlights at the stare of a machine without eyes?

"Can you really afford to get distracted now?" Hibari asked. Tsuna's eyes widened when he barely avoided the tonfa, only thanks to his instincts and quickly grabbed some of his dying will pills to get into his hyper dying will mode. "I'm going to pry open all of your abilities." The skylark announced.

Tsuna indeed couldn't afford being distracted right now.

…

He took it back. _Some distraction is very welcome right now_, Tsuna gulped when he stared in the soft orange eyes of his ancestor. He just exploded by saying that he'd rather destroy the Vongola than inherit its sins when suddenly, it turned out that his resolution was accepted by the former Vongola bosses. And while the other bosses disappeared right after saying this, this man stayed behind.

"I've waited a long time to talk to you, Tsunayoshi." The blonde smiled gracefully.

"Y-you have?" Was the only thing what Tsuna managed to ask. What else could he say to his ancestor whose lifework he just declared to destroy?

"I've been watching you through the Vongola ring, like my guardians have watched yours." The older male smiled. "How nostalgic it is to see how much you were like us."

"I-it is?"

"It is."

"…Wait, if you've been watching me from the ring… then… hieee?!"

"If that meant 'I know that you like that girl', then… yes."

"N-no wait! I-I can explain!" Tsuna stuttered. "I-I mean that I- No wait! I'm not a pedophile! I just eh-"

"I know you aren't." Giotto chuckled amused. "You're just three years apart, I've known lovers who had larger age-gaps."

"Really?" Tsuna sighed in relief. "N-no wait! You weren't supposed to know that! No one was supposed to know that! It's already bad enough that Reborn knows!"

"Calm down, Tsunayoshi, it's fine." Giotto laughed. "It is weird to see how much we're alike. I reacted exactly the same when I realized that I-…" The ancestor stopped mid-sentence and looked almost regretfully at the ring of his descendant's hand.

Tsuna stopped hyperventilating when he realized that Primo's pleasant smile had faded to make place for a sadder expression. The teen took a deep breath when he realized how much this expression reminded him of someone, even though he couldn't remember who he was reminded of.

Reborn? True, sometimes he did look like that though that version of this expression was usually hidden behind a smug smirk. No, it was someone else… another hitman maybe?

Bianchi? Shamal? Wait, was it Mukuro? No, not really… though that guy did have this kind of feel hanging around him. It made the pineapple haired teen look older than he actually wa-

_Zero_, Tsuna realized. The future Decimo took another deep breath at the realization and tried to ignore the lightheaded feeling he suddenly got. He couldn't believe how he forgot that Zero was reborn at some point, which meant that she was supposed to be older than she actually was. How she was supposed to be the sister of a hitman at one time.

The look in his ancestor's eyes, was the look of someone who has seen more than a normal person should have seen. This man, Reborn, the other hitmen he met, Zero, they'd all seen someone they knew die. Possibly in front of them even, or _because_ of them.

"It's… a shame that my tutor is gone and that we never got a chance to meet again, even in afterlife." Giotto whispered, half-confirming Tsuna's theories with the tone hidden behind the whispers. The man looked up into the eyes of Tsuna and nodded slowly. "Do not make the same mistakes as me, Tsunayoshi. Fight for your loved ones, protect them, cherish them… make sure that they're happy. I wish you the best of luck... Now it's time for you to inherit the proof of the Vongola."

…

The parachute twirled slowly around in the air again, a simple action which somehow managed to keep Chrome calm even after seeing it for many times. If it wasn't for this strangely calming object, Chrome was afraid that she would do nothing more than worry about the girl who adopted her.

'_I can… and I will.'_

The last words she heard from Byakuran still haunted her mind whenever she found herself distracted from the present. Seeing the training of the other's in the base was a welcome distraction for those confusing memories, even though she preferred training herself over watching the training of another. Unfortunately, that was impossible for her because she lacked a tutor and now she didn't have a teacher anymore.

Not in this future.

"I really wonder what happened." She smiled sadly to the floating machine. It responded by speeding up its next twirl, but didn't give a vocal answer like always. Despite that she never got a real answer, Chrome couldn't help the fact that her mouth curved into a smile. She was really grateful for having this strange machine around to calm her down and allow her to stay optimistic.

"Let's go, I heard that we received a call. Maybe it's a clue." Chrome smiled and the parachute dropped in altitude, only to raise up in the air again as if it wanted to nod in agreement.

Yes, Chrome was really thankful for this parachute.

…

'_Waah, you are so tiny, Chrome-nee. You're actually smaller than me now… no, wait. You're supposed to be smaller than me anyway.'_

Chrome had to try very hard not to stare and gape at the hat of the stranger on the screen, especially since the shape resembled a frog or something like that. A ridiculously huge black frog hat tended to cause that kind of reaction, especially when being worn by a teal haired male whose default face seemed to be as deadpan as humanly possible.

"Who are you?" She asked after she managed to tear her eye away from the hat. The teal eyes of the young man narrowed the teeniest bit at the question before returning to their original state again and looking at the girl without the tiniest hint of a real emotion.

'_How sad, Chrome-nee has forgotten me. Sempai, do something about it.'_

The green haired male turned to the two fighting men to mock-ask for help, but he only got a knife aimed at his face. The green haired man shrugged, evading the knife at the same time as he shrugged, and returned his attention to the screen again. Acting like all that didn't happen at all and somehow looking as deadpan as before.

'_I'm Fran. The old-timer's-'_

And then the call ended, leaving Chrome staring at the now black screen in confusion and something akin to disbelieve. Was it supposed to be possible to look emotionless while sounding sad in an almost fake and yet real way at the same time? If not, that boy somehow managed to do that while sounding a bit smug as well.

"That was… strange." Chrome muttered to the parachute which stopped twirling around somewhere during the conversation.

"It was." Reborn agreed though he wasn't really paying attention to the girl at the moment. It seemed that all the guardians were finally together with the arrival of the older version of the sun guardian. Things were finally starting to look brighter.

…

"These are mine?" Chrome asked hesitantly as she accepted the boxes which were given to her from the normally loud man.

"They extremely are." The white haired man nodded, somehow managing to make himself sound less loud than his words normally sounded. He looked around and continued in an equally quiet tone after he had made sure that no one was listening along. "You left these with Fran a while ago, he just asked me to return them."

"He did?" Chrome wondered out loud. From what she gathered about these boxes since she came from the future, they were quite valuable. So her future self had trusted the green haired man enough to entrust these boxes to him, to entrust her own boxes and weapons with him and leave herself practically seen defenseless… What kind of relationship did she actually have with the seemingly emotionless man?

And why was the brother of the Sasagawa she knew, trying to keep his voice quiet?

"He didn't make a good first impression, did he?" Ryohei laughed sheepishly when he noticed how much the quiet the girl from the past was thinking with a confused frown. "But I can guarantee that he is an extreme guy… you just have to see through the extreme layer of unextremeness."

"W-who is Fran, actually?" Chrome asked.

"Fran is… eh, how do I say this without raising misunderstandings? He is the new mist of the Varia and he trained under Mammon, Mukuro, Zero and you yourself." Ryohei tried to explain. "He is also… eh… something like the eh… he seems to have an extremely close relationship with Zero in a way, I guess? But that is a secret!"

"Why is that a secret?"

"You should know that the future you were hunted because of your relationship with Zero and the fact that you could decode the messages of… the parachutes." The sun guardian nodded while gesturing to the nonsuspicious parachute that was still floating around Chrome. "Like that one. Mukuro also disappeared and I suspect that it's because of his close relationship with Zero. If the world knew that Fran's relationship with Zero was close as well…"

"But d-doesn't anyone suspect anything, knowing that Zero trained him?" Chrome asked hesitantly.

"No, everyone think that their relationship is extremely bad." Ryohei laughed. "And no one really knows that Zero trained him, actually, Zero is still a pretty unknown figure in the underworld. She is good at hiding her identity if she's really trying to, so… that's why everyone thinks that Fran is Mammon's, Mukuro's and your apprentice."

"…Really? So that is why he had my boxes." Chrome mused. If he was her apprentice, then it would make sense why her future self entrusted her boxes to him.

"Eh… yes. Also, with this you should be able to train yourself to the extreme." The older Ryohei continued. Chrome looked up at the older man and blinked in confusion.

"How?"

"Fran said that you had everything you needed inside your boxes. He was actually supposed to train you, but he didn't want to come along to do so… But he guaranteed that he extremely prepared every necessary thing for your training!"

Despite trying not to, Chrome decided that her first and second impression of Fran was… not that good.

…

"Basic flame control for dummies…" Chrome read out loud. Half of her mind wanted to laugh at the title of the thin book but the other half wanted to put the thing back and pretend that she never saw it. According to the Sun man, everything she needed to train was inside her boxes and yet, Chrome was starting to doubt his words more and more.

She eyed the orange colored book again, opening it and inspecting it for even the tiniest hint of mist flames, but she failed to find anything. The book was what it was: a book about dying will flames, explained in the easiest way so even children could understand the concept of the flames. Nothing more and nothing less than one of the basic schoolbooks for beginners, mostly used in the mafia schools according to Zero.

Chrome knew everything what was written inside already, she was sure of that because Zero had explained everything inside already.

Chrome sighed and put the practically seen useless object back where it came from before picking another small box to open. Like the first box, it contained a book and Chrome abruptly put it back into the box after she read the title.

Basic illusions part one.

Chrome's third impression of Fran was even worse than her first and second, she decided while absentmindedly lighting up the mist ring again to open another box. When she saw another book, she didn't even bother with being surprised at the title, 'How to be an illusionist, explained in basic steps for everyone', and simply put it down next to the already opened boxes.

"Is he serious about this?" Chrome asked the parachute hesitantly. The object made a nod-like movement and floated around in the air in a steady rhythm. Chrome, who was starting to understand the machine a bit better, approached her boxes and opened them again.

"It's a clue isn't it?" She asked with the books now in her hands.

The parachute made a nodding movement.

"Is it something about those books?"

Another nod.

"…Do I have to read them to figure out?"

A fast twirl.

"No?" Chrome pouted, unsure of what the gesture meant. She was so sure that she was starting to understand the machine better and that she was on the right track. At least she had a clue to her training now. It concerned the books, but she didn't need to read the contents to figure out what the clue to her training was… Was there a connection to those books?

Chrome looked at the schoolbooks on the ground and her whole face lit up when she saw the small connection. "These are the basics of everything… I have to train the basics that I was taught!"

The parachute made an almost proud nod-movement and Chrome nodded back. She knew what to do now.

…

**Omake: the situation on the other side**

"Fran-chan, weren't you supposed to be in Japan to tutor Chrome-chan?" Lussaria asked the frog hatted male. Fran looked up from the book he was reading, 'dying will flames: the basic history by children, for children', and blinked almost emotionlessly at the mother hen of the Varia.

"Was I supposed to train her?"

"Fran-chan! I told you so many times that yes, you were supposed to train her." Lussaria scolded the youngest member of the Varia. "And you said that you prepared everything already and put it in the poor girl's mist boxes."

"Ah, I now remember." Fran nodded, clapping his hands together as if to emphasize his supposed surprised words which still sounded close to emotionless. "So that was where I put those books, I was already wondering where they went. I was planning on reading those next…"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I don't have a lot to say besides: I really love Fran. That guy is awesome and ridiculous at the same time and I can't help but loving him. I love the other characters as well, of course, but Fran is really high on the list of 'favorite KHR character' (just below Mukuro, I guess). **

**I was actually staring to ship Renata and Fo- I mean the Chinese transfer student too, at one point during writing the omakes, Tsukiyomi-Hio and KiraKiraBluemoon… I'm afraid that this ship was never able to set sail though… maybe someday in an extra chapter where Renata didn't die it will?**

**I'm glad that you liked the daily life of the Sinclair's, Reaper Senpai, Muito and SakuraLuck. Sometimes I have too much fun writing them ;).**

**Fake bullets hurt indeed, ADDBaby. An experienced nerf-bullets victim talking here and those aren't even the ones that hurt the most *sighs.**

**Special mention to damn relevantion! You're the first to point that out :D, congrats! I thought that I made it pretty obvious~**

**Thanks for the other reviews too! Well… this all aside, it has officially been one year and three days since I started this fic now :D, wow I never expected to last this long! Especially since my attention span is… what was I talking about again? Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	55. Chapter 55

Chapter 52: fake

Accidents will always happen and Chrome knew that by experience. Maybe not firsthand experience, but it even the secondhand experience that she had was useful in the household where she had gotten used to. May it be chemical explosions gone wrong or triggered glue guns, there was always a huge chance of something going wrong in the Neo Estraneo household and most of the times it was convenient if everyone knew what to do.

In the beginning, Chrome felt a bit out of the place as one of the less destructive members of the household, but she quickly became used to the daily chaos. She even learned to enjoy the more peaceful moments and to laugh along with the ridiculous moments. In the days in which the experiments seemed to go entirely wrong, however, Chrome had learned to think and to act fast to prevent as much damage as possible.

Chrome liked to think that she knew what to do whenever an accident happened in the household of madness, but none of those experiences with ridiculous accidents could help her right now.

Chrome glanced at the huge unmoving robot in front of her and tried to remember what happened in the last few seconds as she gripped the blanket of the makeshift futon.

She remembered trying to open some of the other boxes to see what Fran could have left her apart from the basic books. She also remembered seeing a green colored box between the indigo colored ones. With the thought that the green box could have contained something useful unlike the indigo ones, she opened it.

But what happened afterwards?

The eyepatched girl frowned when she realized that there was a hole in her memories. She couldn't remember what could possibly have happened after she opened the green colored box. Or maybe she did remember, but she didn't realize it. Chrome wasn't sure if the bright flash that she saw had anything to do with her missing memories.

"I see that you're awake, young Princess." Someone greeted and Chrome froze up for a second. The purple haired girl looked up at the owner of the voice and almost as an automatic response on seeing a possibly dangerous stranger, a trident appeared in her hands.

"Who are you?" She asked the man as she made a quick observation of him. The blonde man didn't seem too threatening, but Chrome had learned not to judge on appearance only. She saw the weakest looking people performing the most amazing feats and even if the man in front of her looked kind of weak, he could just as well have been one of those people.

"Alright, young Princess. Before we seriously hurt someone, please aim that trident to somewhere… where I'm not standing." He smiled.

"Who are you?" Chrome asked the blonde again. The man raised his hands up in the air in a universal gesture of surrender, but his smile didn't seem to waver.

"Calm down young Princess." The blonde tried again. "You may not recognize me now, but I'm someone you know from the future."

"Answer me first." Chrome urged. This was not the first time that she woke up somewhere where she wasn't supposed to be and Chrome had learned her lessons last time. First confirm the identity of the person in front of her and _then_ ask why she woke up between huge robots.

"My name is Spanner." The blonde smiled despite still being threatened by the pointy end of Chrome's trident. "And I'm one of the B rank officers of the Black spell of the Millefiore."

"Millefiore?" Chrome frowned in suspicion. Was she in the Millefiore base? "You're someone from the enemy?"

"By Nemo's orders." Spanner shrugged. "Listen, young Princess. We can continue brooding about this or I can explain what is happening over a cup of tea. Your choice."

"Explain." Chrome ordered, not lowering her trident despite the fact that the name 'Nemo' triggered something in her mind.

"Welp, I guess that I'll just have to follow your orders, young Princess." Spanner laughed nonchalantly as if there was no pointy weapon aimed at his eyes. "Nemo ordered me to infiltrate the Millefiore while she did what she had to do. So here I am, infiltration successful and waiting until my boss gives me another order."

"…Who is Nemo?" Chrome asked hesitantly.

"Nemo?" Spanner echoed. "I thought that you knew who Nemo was… or was that knowledge supposed to be a few days after you were summoned to the future? Hmm…"

The man hummed in his thoughts, turned around and made his way through the lab until he reached the calendar on the wall. "Yes, I see… a few days too early. Alright then, I'll just have to explain it."

Chrome watched the man walking back, grabbing something from a desk as he passed it, and tensed up again. "What do you want from me?"

"From you?" Spanner asked as he put the lollypop in his mouth. "Not much. I either want to know where my boss is… or I want an order from _you_, young Princess."

…

"Suhana?"

"S_p_anner."

"Haha, that's right… I missed the P. sorry, I'm still half-asleep." Tsuna laughed… before suddenly sitting up and realizing what happened before he blacked out. Robots. X burner air. "Mosca!"

Tsuna shot up from the makeshift bed and looked almost horrified at the man called Spanner as he got the realization. This was the owner of the voice who talked to him during his fight with the King Mosca. This man was the one who he was actually fighting.

He was held captive by someone of the Millefiore.

Tsuna gulped nervously when he realized it and tried to calm his nerves. At least he wasn't dead, so that must have meant something... right? He could try to escape and...

"Sawada-san?"

"C-Chrome?!" Tsuna exclaimed when he spotted the smaller figure behind the blonde man, forgetting Spanner for a small second. "Where were you? We have been looking for you since you suddenly disappeared yesterday and I never saw a parachute being so distraught before! In fact, I didn't know that a parachute could look like that!"

"One of my mist boxes turned out to contain an emergency teleportation device." Chrome smiled hesitantly as if she wasn't entirely sure of it herself.

"Teleportation… device?"

"They were supposed to be destroyed ever since we found out that the teleportation machines were dangerous things to use. With those, anyone could enter any place as long as the location is known and we couldn't risk something like that... But I think that Nemo saved one for this occasion." Spanner added to the explanation. "Don't worry about it though. I destroyed the device so it can't be used anymore."

"Nemo…" Tsuna muttered. Why did the voice in the back of his head seem to react to that name? The brunet was sure that he heard that name before, but… was it important? The voice in the back of his head insisted that it was.

"A-apparently, that is one of Zero-chan's aliases." Chrome supplied. Tsuna looked at the younger girl and sat a little straighter at the mention of Zero's name.

"…Wait, does it mean that you know Zero?" Tsuna asked the blonde man when his mind finally made the connection between Zero and the fake name that the Varia used to call the albino girl. "Or rather than that, do you know where she is?"

"Why does everyone ask that?" Spanner wondered out loud before answering the actual question he was asked. "Yes, I know Ne- Zero. Officially seen she's my boss, but now she has disappeared the young Princess over there is my boss."

"Really?" Tsuna mused, feeling as lost as Chrome looked at the moment.

"And to answer your other question… I have absolutely no idea where she is at the moment. She left instructions for me and my partner in crime… but that is all I know." Spanner sighed. "But putting that matter aside for now, could you describe the parachute."

"The parachute?" Tsuna echoed incredulously. _That_ was what the man wanted to know while his boss was missing?

"The distraught one, yes." Spanner nodded.

"It's a white one with a small indigo flame in it instead of a normal flame." Chrome described.

"So you have found Hope." Spanner mused. "I knew that it liked that disguise the most. Usually it has different coloring, you know? Where is Hope at the moment? Maybe it could help me a little with programming."

"Hope?" Tsuna frowned in confusion, feeling like he missed something important.

"The parachute? Its name is Hope." Spanner frowned back. "Don't tell me that you guys didn't know? Hope is quite the famous figure amongst the Vongola. It caused at least half of all the conflicts within the CEDEF from what I've heard… really? You guys never heard of its name? I thought that at least Lal Mirch or the cloud guardian would have mentioned its name because it usually causes troubles for them."

…

"Shut up, or I'll bite you to death." Hibari warned the floating object. The parachute seemed to pause in its path for a second, but continued floating forwards without too much worries when it noticed that the skylark didn't attack him.

"Hn, I heard that. And don't think that I've forgotten those incidents as well, _Hope_." Once again the parachute seemed to freeze in air, only to slowly turn around and stare at the suited figure with nonexistent horrified eyes.

"Yes, I can see through that flimsy layer of mist flames any day. Next time, make sure that the rabbit gives you more flames than this before you decide to take on a fake appearance."

…

My eyes fluttered open as if I was called by someone, but as always I couldn't see anything. I slowly blinked my eyes as I tried to remember who I was, where I was and what I was doing, but I regained my memories soon enough. Too soon maybe.

Resisting the urge to chuckle bitterly at the sudden pain in my heart, I moved my arms to a more comfortable position despite the restraints and stared in the darkness with unseeing eyes. The darkness had never changed since I arrived in this horrible place and I doubted that it would change anytime soon. How long had I been here? I couldn't be sure anymore but I knew that a long time had passed already.

I tried to look upwards, something that was harder than it was supposed to be and mentally sighed when even the space above me was still black. As I stared into the endless shadows lurking from above, I wondered if the others were alright, but I quickly put that thought aside. I didn't have the time to think about this, I had to make sure that everything was going to be alright…

But still, I wondered if Sho-chan would ever forgive me for putting this much responsibility on him.

It was for a good cause though…

a… good… cause…

…

"I'm your ally." Shoichi Irie declared. He tried to calm down from the sudden rush of adrenalin and decided that he would never owe a favor to Zero again. If that could keep him from doing something like this, then he would be content for the rest of his life.

Even though it was his own fault that his life was so messed up.

_Partially_.

It wasn't exactly his fault that he travelled to the future… the first time. His curiosity was what made him returning to the future and seeing what happened to him, which resulted into a certain person being able to communicate with his parallel selves… yeah, it wasn't _entirely_ Irie's fault.

But maybe he would have ended up becoming a fake Millefiore member even if he didn't owe Zero anything, to clean up the mess that his curiosity left behind…

He'd rather think that this wasn't the case though.

As the redhead's eyes met the green eyes of the other fake Millefiore member in the room, he remembered that his debt with Zero wasn't entirely his fault either. It was Spanner's fault. The blonde gave Irie a nonchalant wave which he answered with a badly aimed shoe at the blonde's head.

"It was all your fault." He huffed as the shoe fell a couple of meters to the left of his target.

"You agreed with it." Spanner shrugged. "All the Neo Estraneo members have known for ages that one should never accept a bet with Nemo which concerns poker. It's your own fault that you ended up owing her a favor."

"First of all, I never joined the Famiglia so how could I have known it." Irie grumbled as he tried to stand up again. "Secondly, it's only because of you that we ended up playing poker."

"Now you're missing the point, Shoichi." Spanner sighed. "What is important right now, is explaining the situation to the children. We can find out whose fault it is that you lost a poker match with Nemo afterwards."

"What is going on?" Gokudera sweatdropped as the two non-Millefiore members continued bickering for a little while. The silver haired teen turned his attention to the other gathered people and felt even more lost in confusion when he saw a tearful reunion between the parachute and the girl who had been missing for a little while, the younger version of the demon prefect and the round machine in the background.

What exactly had he missed?

…

**Omake: the last goodbye to common sense**

"Alright, the fire is extinguished!" I announced to the crowd. "Everyone, thank you for your patience, the contest will continue shortly."

As I looked at the unfazed expressions of the townspeople of Silicy, I mourned for the last hope that I held for the common sense of this town. Not only they didn't seem to be bothered by the huge explosions that were caused by the inventions in the annual convention contest, but they also seemed to enjoy seeing things being exploded.

I shook my head when I was out of the sight of the audience again and tried to make my way through the inventors of my Famiglia without accidentally stepping on something important. The familiar faces of the paperwork-causing people seemed to be just as excited as the faces of the audience and for once, I didn't feel like it was a bad idea to hold this contest.

Of course, something had to explode immediately after I thought that, making me rethink my opinion of the event.

I bet that this would give me more paperwork tomorrow morning.

"We're almost there, Shoichi."

"Spanner… when you invited me over for an annual inventing contest in your hometown, I did not expect something like this." The redhead muttered to the blonde man as they made their way through the inventors as well. "I expected something smaller, something… less explosive."

"So did I, but it always turns into something explosive." I agreed when I reached the two males. "I believe that we don't know each other yet?"

"Right." Spanner smiled before changing the language that he normally into broken Japanese. "Shoichi, this is Nemo. Nemo, this is Shoichi Irie."

"Kufufufu, nice to meet you Shoichi-san." I laughed at the introduction, knowing that the redhead had to be Japanese now. "Spanner and the other townspeople call me Nemo, but my actual name is Zero. Welcome to Silicy, where common sense turns into something explosive."

"Nice to meet you too, Zero-san… Are all the contests here as explosive as this?" Shoichi asked nervously while he shook my hand.

"Not only the contests are explosive." I sighed. "Sadly enough, explosions are a daily thing here."

"Ugh, I don't get the feeling that we should stay here, Spanner." Shoichi winced.

"But it's _the_ yearly event." Spanner pouted.

"But what if something happens? Something... Explosive? _Dangerous_?"

"That is the point of this contest."

"B-but we could get seriously hurt here." The redhead complained. "Can't we just... do something else instead?"

"Then…" Spanner sighed before looking at me as if I was the solution of all of his problems. "What if you spend some time with Nemo while I present my invention? It wouldn't take too long… only one round of poker or something like that." He proposed.

He didn't even give us the chance to accept or decline as he left immediately after saying that, seemingly in a slightly faster pace than I was used to from the inventor.

"Do you think that he's upset because I didn't want to participate?" Shoichi asked hesitantly.

"I'm not entirely sure." I admitted. I was used to the Spanner who was always cool with everything, I think that he was sulking at the moment. Not that I had solid proof to prove it though.

"Oh… shall we play poker then?"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**This chapter might seem a bit fast paced, but I don't like repeating everything that happens in the anime and manga. Normally I would show another side of the story but since Zero is gone… Oh well, at least she did appear in this chapter. Kind of. And the parachute has a name, did you see that coming? I planned revealing the name a while before, but I ended up only dropping some hints about it (if you reread a certain chapter, Zero's Freudian slips make a lot more sense now).**

**I think he did, Madam3Mayh3m. We'll find out more about it later, I think ;).**

**In a way, that sounds hilarious ADDBaby. But I have the most of the plot planned already.**

**I did give some appearance descriptions of Seth, though they are shattered over several chapters NeitherSaneNorInsane. The tie tends to leave the strongest impression though.**

**Don't worry about those omakes, Nicole NightLock. I'm still planning a lot of Sinclair omakes and about Giotto and Alex… there is more planned for them after this arc.**

**I found out about that too, KRP… After typing that chapter, I mean. It was a funny coincidence when my friend pointed it out, so I kept it in the story :D.**

**That… actually could make sense, mysterious guest number 2. Sadly enough, Renata died when she was sixteen and even though I started shipping Fon and Renata myself, I know that the ship didn't sail :(. Maybe they would have ended up together in a parallel world.**

**And so, this chapter… is not done yet. I really, ****_really_**** did not expect to ever reach 350 favs and 400 alerts with this fic. Actually, I'm quite surprised that this fic is still ongoing despite my busy schedule. I'm really grateful for all the support :D, so to show my gratitude… **

**Omake 2:** **the daily life of the Sinclair's part 24**

Kidnappings weren't a rare thing for the Sinclair household, even though the _attempts_ on kidnapping happened more often than actually kidnapping. Even if someone tried, it didn't mean that they would succeed in kidnapping some of the most Spartan people in the underworld.

There weren't many people who dared to go against any of the family with the best reputation in the underworld. Or the worst, it depended on how you looked at the subject. Renato knew that every member of the Sinclair family were skilled enough to take down several kidnappers on their own, but that didn't mean that every of the family members was never kidnapped. He took his mother as an example for someone who got kidnapped more than once.

Even though Serena wasn't a Sinclair by blood, Renato could easily compare her with one… especially knowing that most of Serena's kidnapping cases happened because she was bored. Just like most of the Sinclair's. Apparently they all used their kidnappers to kill time or they just liked seeing the kidnappers attempt doing something impossible as the sadists that they were.

After a few failed kidnapping attempts, the kidnappers learned to never target the hitwoman who was only a Sinclair by name. Her children, however, were safe according to them.

As if.

Renato got kidnapped several times in his youth, but he got away easily. Sometimes even without the kidnappers noticing that he was gone from their grip. When he got older, he learned how to defeat the kidnappers before they got the chance to kidnap them from his father. Not his mother, but his father.

Mindgames were more useful than Renato initially thought.

That was how Renato got a bad, or good, reputation amongst the kidnappers as well. He liked to think that the kidnappers would have learned something from their past experiences by now, but that was just wishful thinking.

As the teen walked casually through the normally abandoned building site, he wondered if the getting-kidnapped-as-a-hobby was a normal thing for many of the Sinclair's and his mother. It certainly seemed to be the case for the kidnappers managed to kidnap the number one most troublesome hostage of all of the Sinclair's.

She was probably the worst target that could have been chosen.

"Renata, we're going home. It's almost time for dinner." Renato announced as he opened the doors of one of the half-finished buildings.

"Coming." The younger Sinclair sibling smiled before gathering the money that she won and walking to her older brother. The said brother tried to ignore the relieved sighs of the kidnappers when they thought that the girl was out of hearing range and shook his head in something akin to exasperation. He really hoped that they would have learned by now.

_If_ they decide to kidnap Renata, they shouldn't relieve their boredom by playing card games in her presence or they would end up becoming hostages themselves.

...

**Omake 3: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 25**

Cold was the night, but the classical music played through the living room masked the howling sound of the wind and the soft patters of the rain outside. Renato almost forgot that there were truly peaceful moments in this household, but as he watched his younger sister dancing happily with their father he was reminded of all the moments of happiness that he found with his family.

"Why don't you join them?" Serena asked her son, joining the teen on the bench.

"You know that I don't like dancing, mother." Renato sighed, though his smile never left his face.

"And yet, I know that you've been practicing~" Serena almost sang with the tune of the classical music. "I wonder why~"

"Shut up, mother."

"Maybe it's because of a special person or a special day… or both~"

"Mother."

"Maybe it's because you wanted to impress someone~"

"Stop, right here."

"Someone special~"

"Halt!"

"Someone you really-"

"Serena, you can stop teasing our son." Renato chuckled as he approached the duo on the bench.

"But dear, he is so cute when he's all in denial." Serena pouted.

"I'm not in denial." Renato grumbled under his breath.

"And now he's acting all tsundere~"

"Mom." Renato sighed. "Please stop this childish teasing. And weren't you dancing with Renata, dad?"

"She wanted a change of pace." The older Sinclair shrugged with a mischievous smile that matched the one on his wife's face. The elder sibling froze up for just a second at the realization of what his father meant, but recovered just in time to appear natural when he felt the tug on his shirt.

"Let's dance, Reborn." Renata smiled brightly with the full intend of pulling her brother along even if he refused.

"Sure." Renato replied without wasting a moment, ignoring the chuckles and giggles from the parents. After accepting the smaller hands of his younger sister in his own hands, he led the girl into a slow foxtrot. A dance which the both of the siblings danced perfectly despite their difference in height. "Sometimes I wonder why you like dancing so much, Renata."

"Sometimes I wonder about that as well." Renata laughed. "But I'm not the only one who likes it without knowing the exact reason why. Did you know that the Vongola Primo liked dancing because his first love was a dancer?"

"Really?" Renato hummed as he continued dancing. "If you say so, it must be true."

"Hmm, I'm not sure about this myself, actually. I heard many rumors that Giotto fell in love on first sight with a dancer who he met in his late teens, but no one ever confirmed the rumor for me."

"But even if they are only rumors, isn't it kind of romantic on its own?"

"Well, that's right, kufufufu." Renata laughed happily. Renato laughed along and without actually interrupting their dance, he lifted the smaller body up in mid-twirl and muttered his words that only Renata could hear.

"Happy birthday, Renata."

**Ah, they grow up so fast... No really, today is exactly one year ago since I started planning the Sinclair omakes so in a way this is Renata's birthday! (And I left a hint of the identity of a certain dancer in chapter 30) Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	56. Chapter 56

Chapter 53: boxes, boxes and… boxes

"Aren't you supposed to be in Japan, froggie?" Bel asked the frog hatted male when their paths crossed on the corridors. The green haired male halted for a second to look up at the older man and shrugged casually.

"Not really, Bel-sempai." Fran replied as deadpan as always while he continued walking to where the other members of the assassination squad were. "Chrome-nee was already taught a lot ten years ago, so she'll be fine after a bit of physical training which I'm not planning to give. I don't like to sweat without a cause."

"I thought that you forgot that you were supposed to tutor the female pineapple mist…" Bel commented.

"I did." Fran nodded absentmindedly. "I forgot that I forgot that I needed to tutor her, but I remembered it after remembering that I forgot it even though I forgot about it immediately after that."

"And isn't tutoring her a cause?"

"Maybe, but my assistance is more needed here than there."

"…Don't complain when you die here then, ushishishi."

"Bell-sempai, I definitely won't complain if you die here."

"You little-"

"VOOOOI, shut up and get your asses here. Our battle is about to begin." A loud voice interrupted the conversation of the mist and storm of the Varia.

"Geez, Squalo-sempai. We aren't as deaf as you, so you don't have to shout so loud." Fran complained, rubbing his ears which were abused by the loud voice of the swordsman. Sometimes he wondered how bad the hearing capacity of the white haired man actually was to make him shout so loud. Fran was convinced that every single person in the Varia manor could hear the voice, even when Squalo used his 'indoor' voice.

The Varia manor was rather huge…

"Shut up, fucking frog!" Squalo shouted.

"Ah, I'm going deaf." Fran sighed before looking at the forest that would soon turn into a battlefield. He wasn't lying when he said that his assistance would be more important here than all the way in Japan, he just hoped that he could finish this matter in time to offer his assistance.

"VOOOOOIIII!"

And he hoped that he wouldn't be deaf by the time that he needed to offer his assistance.

At times like these, where Fran's ears were about to bleed, he really missed the peaceful and silent days that he spent with his greatest grandmother. He remembered the good old time where the shouts weren't as loud and where the people were easier to predict. Also, no one was as weird as the eccentric assassins who he had to share a roof with now…

"I'm _definitely_ going to visit my greatest great grandmother after this."

"Don't you mean greatest grandmother or your great grandmother?"

"Shut up Bel-sempai, you're distracting me from my happy memories of my happy times without you."

…

Chrome looked at the box that she got from the weird round machine in wonder and tried to ignore the weird feeling she got from it. It wasn't a bad feeling, but the girl understood that the feeling she got from the box wasn't entirely good either. It felt like… like the contents of this box wasn't supposed to fall in her hands.

Of course Chrome knew that the box belonged to Mukuro, but that wasn't what she meant. Chrome opened Hope's box without any problem and without any weird feelings behind it, but this box… If this box belonged to Mukuro, it wouldn't have felt like this. Somehow Chrome was convinced of that. It was like the contents of the box belonged to someone entirely else… someone-

"Here." Spanner smiled as he stacked another box above the box that Chrome was holding.

"…Another box?" Chrome asked the blonde, forgetting her worries because of the newfound confusion. The purple haired girl looked almost lost as she remembered all the other cases where she got boxes in this future. Was she really supposed to get this many of them? First Hope's box, then her own boxes and then the Vongola box which should belong to Mukuro, not to her… and the newest addition which was on top of Mukuro's Vongola box.

"With this one you should have gathered them all."

"Gathered them all?" Chrome echoed the blonde's words. "Why would there be a need to gather… them all?

"Because of Zero's plan." Shoichi answered when he saw the confusion on Chrome's face. "Zero gathered all of your and her own boxes, even some of Mukuro's, to deliver them to the right people at the right time. She left them with various people she trusted and told them to deliver them when the time was there."

"Is _that_ the reason why Fran had all my boxes?" Chrome asked. "Zero gave them to him so he could give it to me, the past version of the Chrome of this time?"

"Not _all_ of your boxes were supposed to be given back…" Spanner began hesitantly. "Your box animal was left with Fran and I know that he was rather fond of it… I'm afraid that there is close to no chance that you will get it back."

"Wait, I thought that it was a rumor that the new mist of the Varia liked Chrome's box that much." Shoichi sweatdropped.

"It is a rumor which is a bit too true for its own good." Spanner sighed before pointing at the box that he gave the purple haired girl. "Instead of your own box animal, Zero arranged it so I would give you Mukuro's box animal, young Princess."

"E-eh, if you don't mind me asking, why is Fran so fond of my box animal?"

""Because it is the best sidekick he could have wished for.""

"The best sidekick…" Chrome sweatdropped at the answer of the not-Millefiore members. Just what kind of box animal did she have?

…

"Ah, Fran, where did you get that box animal?" Lussaria asked the green haired man when he walked by. The said man looked at his flamboyant colleague and simply shrugged his shoulders in response.

"I got it from the old-timer, why do you ask?"

"Just curious because I never saw you using it before and it looked like something that you wouldn't be able to hide from us…"

"Oh. Okay." Fran nodded. "By the way, Luss-sempai, I'm going to M.M. now."

"Who is M.M.? should Luss-nee know about a special girl?" Lussaria smiled suggestively.

"M.M. isn't all that special, apart from the fact that she's a gold-digger." Fran commented. "And I'm going to visit my greatest great grandmother after that." He added as an afterthought. "Geez, I really do need a break from all this work that I still have to do."

…

"W-would you mind me asking a question before we begin my training?"

"Of course I wouldn't mind, Chrome-chan."

"Then… is Zero-chan in a relationship in this time?"

Bianchi looked at the girl who she was supposed to tutor and sighed at the sight of the slightly expectant eyes. "…No, for all I know, Zero-chan stayed single in this time." She answered the almost eager question of the normally shy girl.

"Really?" Chrome wondered out loud. "Mukuro-sama is taking a bit too long then."

"What did you say, Chrome-chan? I didn't hear that."

"Nothing, Bianchi-san." Chrome smiled innocently. "I was just wondering how it was possible that Zero-chan is still single after nine years and a few months."

"Zero-chan… is a special case." Bianchi sighed fondly as she gestured the girl to join her on the floor. After the eyepatched girl was sitting next to her, the pink haired woman began her explanation. "You know that Zero-chan is a mafia boss, right?"

"Of course I know." Chrome nodded.

"In between her paperwork and handling the lightning arcobaleno, Zero doesn't have too much of free time." Bianchi sighed. "In that free time, however, she spent a lot of time with you and that guy from the Varia."

"Fran?"

"Yeah, that guy… I'm not sure what kind of relationship they had, but it was definitely not a romantic one. If we want to talk about the romantic relationships… there is actually a lot of tension between Zero and Mukuro or Zero and Tsuna. Zero-chan got to spend a lot of time with the Vongola Decimo and his mist guardian as well, but…"

"But?"

"…Let's say that Zero sees Reborn as her older brother figure and Reborn sees Zero as his younger sister." Bianchi sighed. "He was the master of interrupting them in the most 'convenient' moment."

"So Zero is still single because of Reborn-san?" Chrome asked incredulously.

"Actually… no, even though it played a huge role in the fact, Reborn wasn't the only reason why." Bianchi shook her head in defeat and looked at the younger girl with the disappointment clearly in her eyes. "Men are all cowards, acting like the women are made of glass and too afraid to properly convey their feelings. I've seen the Vongola Decimo almost reverting to his teenage state when he thinks that he is alone with Zero-chan and I doubt that this would ever change. And Mukuro… he acted less like Zero-chan was made of glass, but he never really asked Zero-chan out on a date for some reason."

"But Zero-chan-"

"I know that she isn't made of glass." Bianchi laughed softly. "Sure, she used to have a rather weak body but after spending enough time outside in her free time she got better. It's just that there was this incident with Zero's box animal."

"There was an accident?" Chrome asked, alarmed by the mention of the possibility that something bad happened to the older version of the albino girl she knew.

"It was the first time that Zero-chan opened Pandora's box." Bianchi began wistfully.

"Pandora's box?"

"That is its name." Bianchi nodded. "Pandora's box… it's a rather fitting name if you ask me. The box which was filled with all the evils of the world, the box which wasn't supposed to be opened. I don't know every detail of what happened when Zero-chan opened the box for the first time, but I do know that she was knocked out pretty soon after opening it."

"Zero's box animal is that dangerous?" Chrome whispered. She looked at the woman who was supposed to tutor her and decided that it must have been dangerous if it managed to make the woman look like that.

…

He looked at the box again and resisted the urge to throw it somewhere far away in a fit of frustration. For the nth time it simply refused to open for him and to work along. Zero's box animal was quite the stubborn little thing, it never listened… or rather, he wasn't sure whether it was listening to him or not. The creature never left the box even after feeding it a lot, too much actually, mist flames. Maybe the overconsumption of mist flames was another reason why the box was nicknamed Pandora's box.

Even an attempt of opening it drain him and make him feel more tired than he was supposed to be like he was opening a box which wasn't allowed to open. The name was kind of ridiculous though. Pandora's box was supposed to be a vase according to the original myth or a large jar, not a box…

But the name was a perfect match, even though the box refused to open unlike the vase which released its contents a bit too easily in the myths.

Something stirred in the air, distracting the man from the box in his gloved hands and making him look at the blinding white scene outside. He carefully stored the unopened box away before he closed his mismatched eyes to see what was actually happening out there "Oya oya, it's time already?" He smirked when he realized what was happening.

The buildings in the scenery which belonged to a place far away from where the man currently resided was mostly blocked by the white haired man who was rushing forwards. Call it instincts or a strong hate-reflex, but even though he didn't know exactly what happened over there his illusionary form stopped the man from ever reaching whatever or whoever he was going after.

"M-Mukuro?!"

"Kufufufu, it has been a long time, Vongola." Mukuro chuckled at the reaction despite the small flare of annoyance in the back of his head at the voice of the young Vongola.

"Rokudo Mukuro." Byakuran growled, glaring in the mismatched eyes of the man who stopped him with imaginary attacks. "I thought that I finished you off already?"

"I don't die that easily." The heterochromatic man shrugged casually as if he wasn't surrounded by pillars of illusional fire. "And I wasn't planning on dying anytime soon. I learned my mistake last time when Zero attacked me with a giant axe."

"Talking about Ze-chan~" Byakuran began suddenly cheerfully. His mouth curled up in a foxy grin like he wasn't caught in an illusion and clapped his hands together in an almost childish and carefree gesture, but the effects of the gesture were more threatening than carefree. "You wouldn't know what happened to her and where she is right now, do you Mukuro-kun?"

"Kufufufu, you mean that you don't know what happened after she ran away from you?" Mukuro mock-laughed. "Funny, I thought that you would have known what happened when you send that abomination to the main base of the Neo Estraneo. I thought that you would have known that you killed the family of my dearest teacher and how she ended up coping with it."

"So you do know~"

"I do." Mukuro nodded. "Listen, Sawada Tsunayoshi, take the sky arcobaleno to Nanimori town."

"B-but."

"You absolutely cannot let Byakuran get his hands on Yuni." Mukuro continued, alarming most of the gathered people with the seriousness in his voice. "After all, it would be rather bad if all this trouble was for nothing if she gets caught while I'm retrieving my dearest Zero."

…

**Omake: ****Reborn's**** meddling is the reason why Zero is still single**

"Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"

The music seemed to fade in the background as the woman looked up at him and offered him a breathtaking smile. Never had he thought that a smile could brighten up the world like hers did and for a moment and Ernesto was forced to wonder why he never saw the woman before because he would have remembered if he saw the unknown woman before.

Soft curls of white hair escaped the braided crown framed her heart shaped face with cheeks which are still slightly chubby and uniquely colored purple, lilac really, eyes stared right into his own blue ones. He was proud of the effects that his baby blue eyes seemed to have on women before he saw how the eyes of the stranger could possibly draw in men and women alike. The woman wasn't exactly short, but compared to the rather buff men that attended this party she seemed petite, almost mouse like even though her posture screamed something else instead.

The way she stood kind of reminded him of the postures that dancers had and now he looked a bit more carefully, the possibility that this woman was a dancer was rather high. Her flowing dress in the same color as her eyes seemed to be solely designed for dancing alone. It accentuated every bit of her movement, even the rises and drops of her chest with every breath seemed to become a graceful movement.

Yes, Ernesto would have remembered her if he had ever seen the woman before… The fact that this was a party organized by the Vongola Decimo was also a factor that played a role in this.

"Actually, I don't know if heaven exists. I know someone who has been in hell though…" The woman answered in a tone that could only be described as sincere.

"Excuse me?" Ernesto asked, baffled by the answer that he was given with a flowery smil.

"No, it didn't hurt." The albino woman sighed. Ernesto saw that she wanted to say something more, but before he could have the chance of hearing her warm voice again his breath hitched in his throat. Someone approached them and Ernesto would be a very foolish man if he wouldn't recognize the very man who organized this ball.

"Here you are, Zero." Tsunayoshi Sawada smiled. The almost chilled smile that was aimed at Ernesto was almost the exact opposite of the warm smile that the woman, Zero, received. "I was afraid that you wouldn't come to the party tonight."

"Kufufufu, you literally dragged me to this party, Tsuna." Zero laughed. "And with literally I mean _literally_."

"With a good cause though, I needed a dat-"

"Kufufufu, it's wonderful to see you again, my dearest Zero."

"Muku-chan!"

Ernesto blanched at the sudden appearance of one of the most trusted members of the Vongola and at how casually Zero interacted with him and the boss of the most prestigious Famiglia in the underworld. And if he heard it right, the Vongola Decimo dragged the woman along to be his date… did that mean that he flirted with the future wife of-

"It's great to see you again, Muku-chan."

"It has been too long." The mist guardian agreed.

"Just three days, Muku-chan." Zero chuckled.

"Three days too long." Mukuro smirked lovingly.

Maybe she wasn't the future wife of the Decimo after all-

"Hands off, Mukuro."

"How about you back off first, Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"Ignore those two, they're always like this." Zero apologized for the two bickering men. "What were we talking about again?"

"I-I eh…" Ernesto gulped as he saw the glares of two important Mafioso were directed at him. "I-it's nothing. I-I see that you already found the p-people you were looking for. Haveagreatevening."

…

The man left faster than I had ever seen someone run before, with the exception of Tsuna in his normal dying will mode maybe. While his hyper dying will mode made his smoother than honey, the dying will mode still made him strip off his clothes and run around like a madman.

Tsuna was lucky that Reborn doesn't fire dying will bullets every second these days like he did when we were still attending Nanimori middle.

The bickering of Tsuna and Mukuro was drowned by the new song coming from the orchestra, Minuet from Boccherini if I recognized it right, and I blocked out their voices in favor of listening to the music.

I may have been dragged away from my steadily increasing paperwork because Verde was 'visiting' our base, but I could still enjoy this party while I still could. I was sure that the paperwork will have increased even more by the time that I return to our house in Nanimori though.

How Tsuna found out that I was in Nanimori instead of the Italian base was a mystery. Or a matter of hyper intuition. Sometimes I really hated that intuition…

"Ciaossu, Zero."

"Hello to you too, Reborn." I smiled at the approaching hitman. "Are you enjoying this party?"

"More than you do, apparently." Reborn nodded. "You don't seem to enjoy it here at all even though you really like dancing."

"Hmm, only because Verde is causing trouble for my Famiglia while I'm here. I feel kind of guilty for being here… plus, no one asked me for a dance yet and someone has to watch these overgrown children while they fight, right?"

"Do you want to leave these men to their bickering then?" My babyfied brother suggested. "I think that Gokudera is more than willing to watch over his beloved boss… and Mukuro."

"Are you offering to dance with me?" I smiled. "Even though you don't like dancing at all?"

"I can make an exception for you."

"Kufufufu, sure then, Reborn. Lead me the way"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**I'm so glad that I will be able to write from Zero's POV again from next chapter on. It has been way too long… So, can anyone guess what box animal Zero and Chrome have? I also wonder if anyone remembers all the delivered boxes, kufufu. **

**For the matter of Fon and Renata:  
Hibari is **_**not**_** their child, but they could have ended up together if Renata didn't die at the age of 16. Sure, there is an age gap of ten years between them, but I know couples with larger age gaps. Also, if there would be a romance between Fon and Renata, it would only have begun after Renata turned seventeen and not while she is five years old. I hope that this clarifies this matter :).**

**Thank you, 4everfictional, I hope that you still think that after all these chapters (if you ever read this).**

**To Person A: I think that the reason why there're more TsunaxZero shippers than MukuroxZero shippers is that Tsuna got a lot more cute(? Idk?) scenes with Zero. Don't worry about Mukuro though, he will get his moments soon. (I've written that part already, actually ;p)**

**Thanks for the compliments Hachinonana, and believe me that reviews do not annoy me. They just urge me to write a bit faster ;). And Hope is the name of the parachute that keeps on following Chrome and it had a pretty important role up to now… hmm…**

**Thanks for the other reviews as well! Like I mentioned before, reviews urge me to write a bit faster and I rather enjoy the speculations of my readers (it gives me insight of what you guys think of this fic). I'm not sure when I'll update these because everyone around me seems to celebrate their birthday now and I still have to write the next chapter of my Naruto fanfic (shameless advertising here). I wonder if anyone is as happy as me to know that Zero will return next chapter ;). Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	57. Chapter 57

Chapter 54: lucid

Maybe I had been in here for so long that I actually forgot how it was to be outside. To be free to move the way I wanted because everything around me here, restricted my body in almost every way. It felt awful, but in the end the sedating effects of my surroundings only helped me to focus myself on my goal.

But even my goal was starting to fade. Why was I here again? Was it all worth it? Am I really the one who was supposed to be here? Questions that I shouldn't be asking myself because the answers were the very reason why I was here. Why I chose to be here.

It turned out that the constant appliance of sedatives affected my mind as well. It clouded my mind and made my consciousness numb even though my unclear determination still pulled me forwards. In my mind, my actions were like a ghost of what they were actually were in reality and I still didn't understand why I continued making these illusions.

These illusions to make me look like someone I was not or illusions to support… others? Disguise things? Who or what again? And why? What was I supposed to do again?

Of course, in between the everlasting moments of numbness were moments where I regained a bit of my consciousness, but only because the sedatives ran out for a small moment. My mind in those short periods was painfully clear and allowed me to do everything I wanted and needed to do, but my recollections of what I did faded as soon as the sedating effects of the drugs returned.

Like a shadow casted over the thin path that I had to walk, my clear consciousness began to fade again as if I was in a never-ending circle.

In the end, it was the sudden pull of gravity that woke me up from my slumber for real and the harsh hit of cold wind which truly woke me up. For the first time in… far too long, I could think properly again. I wasn't sure if I had to be happy about that.

My surroundings became clearer as my mind regained its consciousness and with that, I finally noticed how I was restrained. The chains or the weird tubes which were attached to my body weren't even the worst part of everything despite the fact that I was struggling against them at the moment. Even before I opened my eyes, I recognized the almost heavy floating feeling I had before and though I could breathe properly again I still got the feeling of-

"Shh, calm down, my dearest." A female sounding voice hushed as a cool gloved hand covered my eyes. "Listen to my voice, only hear my voice. Forget everything else, just remember me. You're not drowning, you're safe."

As my erratic breathing slowed down and regained its normal pace again, I felt the hand leave my eyes and move to my right cheek instead. The hand supported my head and allowed me to look in the eyes of the owner of the voice. The unfamiliar dark purples stared in my lighter purple eyes with a familiar gaze which I would recognize anytime and everywhere. Each dark purple eye got a different hue once I realized who the person behind the illusionary guise was. One a brilliant blue the other one a blazing crimson.

"Mukuro." I mouthed wordlessly.

"Go back to sleep, my dearest." The man reassured me with a smile hidden underneath his female disguise. "I will get you out of here."

…

Without the sedating effects of the drugs that were used to restrain my body, my mind was so painfully clearer. In fact, it was so clear that my memories and dreams collided into the experience I was going through now. I looked at the duo who were silently guarding the port in my lucid dream and memory and couldn't help but wince when my body lost control of my illusions at the time, making me visible to the world and collapsing in front of Yamamoto and Gokudera.

"Midget, what are you doing?" Gokudera exclaimed in panic as he saw my body fall down to the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut. What I said next was lost in the chaos that followed soon after, but I could still remember what I said back then.

"Watch out for Byakuran."

What happened after I blacked out was not something that appeared in my dream because I had no recollection of it. Instead, my dreams jumped to my next memory. I remembered that the warm brown wooden ceiling was a huge contrast to the stark white ceiling of where I woke up before and that the sight jolted other memories which were supposed to be irrelevant.

And yet, I couldn't help but allow the nostalgia to rush over me as I slowly came to realize that I woke up in my own room. Or not exactly my room, but the room that used to belong to me in my first life. Not for the first time I almost forgot that I was Estraneo Zero, not Alexis Chevalier. This effect was only amplified when I saw that general shape of the person who was sitting on the chair which was placed next to my bed.

"How are you feeling, Zero." Those words were supposed to pull me back to the present time, but almost did the opposite when the tone reminded me so much of Giotto. But I knew. I knew that it was impossible.

"Probably just as bad as I'm looking right now." I managed to smile.

"Then you can't be feeling too bad."

"Kufufufu, really funny Tsuna."

"See? You're laughing again." Tsuna smiled warmly. This was what really pulled me back to reality and made me realize what happened again.

"Tsuna, Byakuran… h-he."

"You don't have to force yourself to say it, Zero."

"I have to." I sighed, trying to sit up even though my arms gave up under the weight of my body. Tsuna looked worriedly as a small groan escaped my lips when I fell back on the bed, but I weakly gestured him to sit back again. "I'm fine, I'm fine."

"Are you really?" Tsuna asked. "Because you look like you want to cry, to be honest."

"Hmm… maybe I actually want to." I muttered under my breath. Unfortunately, Tsuna seemed to hear that.

"What happened?" He almost commanded, his eyes turning into a blazing orange for a moment as I looked at him with wide eyes. I remembered that I felt like a deer caught in the headlights back then, something that I hadn't felt since Giotto. Not like that.

"Byakuran." I whispered. "Byakuran plans to take over the world with the power of the tri-ni-sette. He already has the mare rings, he just needs the Vongola rings and the arcobaleno pacifiers and he'll have the ultimate power… apparently."

"He told you?" Tsuna asked.

"Rather than telling me, he wanted me to join his cause."

"What did he do?" For a moment Tsuna's voice was almost drowned in the massive force of his sky flames as his eyes showed nothing but worry and anger on my part.

"He... _really_ wanted me to work with him even after I refused." I squeaked.

"Was that what made him keep you there for-" The man stopped mid-sentence, but it wasn't fast enough for I could finish the sentence even without confirmation. Alarmed, I looked straight in the still slightly orange eyes of the fellow mafia boss.

"How long have I been missing?"

"Zero, this isn't-"

"Tsuna, how long have I been gone?" I asked again.

"…Three days." Both the me in my dream and my actual body started to shiver slightly as other memories returned to our minds.

"I was… aware of what was happening." I said as if I wanted to deny it. "Byakuran kept me under control with sedatives to... change my mind. I think that he didn't expect me to recover so soon, so he kept injecting the drug until potent amounts of it was flowing through my veins."

My hand rubbed my healed arm in my dream, an involuntary action which alarmed Tsuna to take my hand in his to pull my arm straight. His worry did not disappear as he inspected the healed pale skin because he knew about my fast healing.

"But… even with the drug I was aware of what was happening around me. I was aware of everything what Byakuran said. I know what he is planning to do…"

"Let me guess, I'm not going to like it?" Tsuna asked, he carefully hid his anger behind a blank expression but it was still pretty obvious to me that he was angry. I could only offer a weak smile and continue my explanation. After giving Tsuna a short but detailed summary of Byakuran's plan he looked at me in worry and… something else.

"What are you planning?" I asked the silent man.

"You're not going to like this, Zero." Tsuna shook his head in resignation.

"Hmm, say it anyway."

"The only way to thwart his plans is to destroy the Vongola rings." This made me sit up in my bed and groan at the sudden dizziness that the action caused.

"You can't do that, Byakuran will try to bring the rings here by… I don't know. Travelling to the past? Bring the past rings to the future?" I hissed.

"That is why we'll bring our past selves to the future before he knows that the rings are destroyed." Tsuna explained while he supported my back with a firm hand to prevent me from falling again. "The me from that time has the most potential."

"And how do you want to bring them here and trick Byakuran?" I asked. "The Vongola rings are unique, their power, their sheer authentic presence, how can you trick Byakuran into believing that the rings are _not_ destroyed until your past selves... reveal their rings?"

"I happen to know someone who realizes what the rings truly are, how they feel like. The same person just happens to be the best illusionist who I know as well." Tsuna offered.

"…I'm not going to like this?"

"We'll bring our past selves to the future, but you need to-"

"You do realize how hard that it's going to be to keep up the illusion, don't you?" I groaned. "Me faking the Vongola rings? Your faith in my abilities is a bit too high."

"Just think about it." Tsuna whispered before slowly lowering my body back onto the bed. "I will give you some time to rest now…"

The me in the dream only grunted a vague reply, but I knew what I meant now with the words. "I will need to concentrate on the illusions only." And that was indeed what was needed. Tsuna turned around when he was in front of the door and offered me a smile.

"You're always welcome in my home to… concentrate."

Before he could leave, however, the door opened.

"Omnivore, the baby's condition is worsening." Kyoya announced.

"Shh, don't say that so loud Hibari-"

"Baby?" I asked, suddenly a lot more awake than a few seconds before. My eyebrows furrowed in suspicion and I looked at the former prefect, hoping that the trepidation I felt was a false alarm. "Who are you talking about, Kyoya."

"Don't you dare Hib-"

"Hn."

"..."

"…I'm going." I growled.

"N-no Zero, please return to your bed." Tsuna pleaded. "Your body is still recovering and you still can't move properly!"

"I'll drag my own body over the ground if I need to." I protested. "I _need_ to see Reborn." As if it was to emphasize my words, my body decided to give in under my weight once I left the warm bed and blankets. Kyoya looked at me in something akin to a mix of approval and disapproval.

"Rabbit, you can't strain your body." He sighed.

"I can and I will." I disagreed.

"Hn."

"I'm not going to rest until I have seen Reborn, Kyoya."

"…Alright." Tsuna sighed, deciding to prevent me from crawling all the way to Reborn's room by carefully lifting me from the ground and supporting me back to my bed.

"Tsuna, I'm not going to-"

"I know." Tsuna laughed softly. "Just climb on my back."

"Hmm, are you offering a piggyback ride?" I asked incredulously. "You are aware that I'm a twenty years old woman, right? I'm not the little girl I used to be."

"You aren't that heavy." Tsuna muttered under his breath.

"Well… how can you be so sure of that?"

"Just climb on already."

"Right."

It took Tsuna a small moment before he could move after I made sure that my arms and legs were carefully wrapped around Tsuna's body. He was probably feeling as awkward as I felt with my entire body pressed to his back, but he recovered fast enough to escape being bitten to death by the resident skylark. The situation couldn't have gotten more awkward… but then, somewhere halfway to Reborn's room, I realized something what made it possible that the entire situation became even more awkward than before.

"Tsuna… what am I wearing?"

"My pajama's…" A few seconds passed before the brunet realized what he said and halted in his steps. "I-I mean that you I mean, your clothes were kind of dirty s-so I wanted to… help out?"

"…Please don't tell me that you are the one who changed my clothes." I blushed.

"I-I- n-no there was a maid and I- actually she approved of me doi- what I meant is-"

"We're here." Kyoya announced. I looked past the opened door and forgot about the matter. The medical equipment in the room surrounded a single bed with a body which seemed even smaller than it was. I climbed off Tsuna's back and managed to walk to the bed before falling to my knees.

"Zero." Reborn nodded.

"Brother." I nodded back, feeling a bit too numb in the back of my head. "How are you feeling?"

"Probably as bad as I look like." The hitman whispered. His normally chubby cheeks seemed hollowed out and his skin was paler than it was supposed to be. The machinery attached to his body made Reborn look even frailer and smaller than he already was, but it were his eyes which made me fear for the worst.

"You'll recover." I whispered back, though it sounded like I was trying to convince myself instead of the baby in the bed. I had seen the look in his eyes before. The look of someone who was dying.

"I won't." Reborn replied as blunt as ever. "Please, Zero, stop looking like that."

"Like what?"

"That." Reborn managed to laugh despite his clear pain. "Can you smile for me?"

"I-I-"

"I don't want my last memory of you to be this one. One where you're obviously in pain."

"In that case, I'll try, R-Renato-" I tried to smile. My babyfied brother didn't seem to be satisfied with that, even though he did seem to be a bit amused.

"…Do you remember your fifth birthday, Renata?"

"My fifth birthday? You mean the one where you danced with me for the first time?" I laughed softly. "I remember that mom said that you practiced your dancing skills a lot for me and me alone…"

"Now _that_ is the smile I want to remember." Reborn smiled as his clouded black eyes looked in my teary eyes. "And that is how I wish you to remember me. As your elder brother…"

"Kufufu… you don't need to wish that, Renato. That was how I would always have remembered you anytime." I chuckled weakly.

"Dame-Tsuna!" Reborn scowled at his student. "I still don't _entirely_ approve, but like I said before, rather you than him… Take care of Zero for me." He ordered with his last strength.

"I love you, brother." I smiled despite the tears. The answer I got wasn't vocal, but the message came across anyways. The object that was pressed in my hand was the last thing that my brother ever gave me and it left me more speechless than I wanted to be. Almost on auto pilot, I put the dull object in one of the first storage boxes that I ever had and held it close to my chest.

If the back of Tsuna's dress shirt was wet from tears on the way back to my room, he did not mention it.

…

When I woke up, I realized that I could move properly again, but not without a dull ache in my body. Probably because I hadn't been moving for quite a while already. The dull ache in my heart, however, was surely because of my dream.

"How are you feeling?" Someone asked.

"Better." I answered before looking up and smiling at the man who had dropped his disguise. The said man lacked his usual smirk, but I could understand why because he was forced to go along with my plan. A plan where he was heavily against. "…Thank you for working along with the plan, Muku-chan."

"I wouldn't have if I wasn't there when it happened." Mukuro frowned. "Your decision on getting caught was too sudden. Too risky to my liking, my dearest Zero."

"Can you blame me for that" I muttered under my breath. "After everything that happened, this was the only plan left…"

"Listen to me." Mukuro commanded, he used the small moment of surprise to cross the small distance between us and held my head to prevent me from looking away from his mismatched eyes. Our noses were almost touching and I could only blink in surprise at the sudden lack of personal space. "Getting caught by the _Vindice_ out of all people? That is something I call suicide, not a plan."

"Hmm… but it worked?" I smiled hesitantly. Mukuro's eyes stared intensely into mine and my smile wavered for a moment. He wasn't amused by the choices I made and he made it very clear, even without words, that he never would. His hands left my head, allowing my head to move again but I couldn't look away from his eyes. Not when their stare was so intense.

I felt his gloved hand brush over my left cheek and I unconsciously leaned into the touch, relishing the comfortable temperature. After what felt like forever, his eyes left mine to actually _look_ at me. To find something off about me. My eyes followed his gaze as he observed every part of my face until his eyes finally reached my still trembling lips.

"N-… just never do this to me again, Zero." Mukuro sighed as he leaned forwards, letting our foreheads touch. Once again, I unconsciously leaned into the comfortable and cool touch. "I don't ever want to get this feeling ever again."

"What feeling?" I breathed, only now realizing how close we were to each other.

"The feeling I get when I know that you are completely out of my reach." He whispered. "You know how worried I was?"

"…Are we just going to ignore that I'm here too?" Fran asked in the background. "…No, no I get it. I will leave you two to your moments. Geez, you're welcome though, old-timer. You do realize that I helped too, right?"

…

**Omake: hair issues**

"…I did not expect all these clothes." I laughed nervously when M.M. dragged me to her room. Her room which she used to display all kinds of clothes which were suspiciously skimpy.

"You have to look your best if you want to fight along Mukuro-chan." M.M. huffed. "I was thinking about… Zero, what are you doing with those scissors?"

"Hmm? Well, I wanted to cut my hair?" I blinked in confusion. "It grew a bit too much while I was in the Vindicare prison and… why are you looking at me like that?"

"Last time when you cut your hair I approved because it was damaged by fire and explosions." The redheaded girl growled. "But I will not allow you to cut your hair now."

"What is wrong with short hair? I actually prefer it over long hair because it takes less-"

"Nothing is wrong with short hair, but long hair suits you better!"

"We're going to fight, you can't expect me to keep my long hair in a perfect state while fighting, M.M." I tried to reason.

"Give those scissors here or so help me." M.M. threatened.

"Alright, alright." I sighed as I handed the scissors to the woman. I decided to pull my long white hair over my left shoulder and tie the curls together in a loose below-the-shoulder ponytail instead. "I'll pull my hair together with a hair tie then… M.M., what are you doing with those scissors?"

"You're not going into war with _that_ hairstyle!"

"What hairstyle? And stop swinging those scissors around!"

"Not until the hairstyle of death is gone!"

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Yay, an early update! I was more excited to write from Zero's POV again since I caught myself writing this chapter in one day even though my other fanfic is still... yeah, no inspiration. So what more do I want to say about this chapter? Fran was always there and played a major role… just in the background. Zero was caught by the Vindice (you'll find out why and how if you hadn't figured it out already with all the hints I've given) and ****Reborn's... I was actually trying to avoid this scene because it never worked out in my mind. It is an important part of the plot though. And… the hairstyle of death.**

**No replies for the reviews this time because I'm actually updating this during my class. (You know that convenient moment when your teacher leaves and do not return? It actually gave me long enough to apply the finishing touches to the chapter). But I do realize that this fic got more than 500 reviews now, so what kind of person would I be if I wouldn't celebrate that?**

**Omake 2: the daily life of the Sinclair's part 26**

The holster without the gun felt weird, but the absence of his beloved weapon wasn't the only reason why Reborn was having headaches of frustrations and dilemmas... Still, why did Renatus Sinclair have to take his gun away? Renato ignored the slight movement of his hand towards the spot where his absent weapon was meant to be and tried to drown his frustrations in something else.

Planning on how to make the life of the future Vongola Nono as miserable as possible when the man came to their house, was a good beginning.

Especially because he was the reason why the gun was taken. If only the man only didn't warn Renatus about the misfortune if Renato would bring his gun to school today… The corners of Renato's mouth curved into a slightly feral grin when he remembered the expression on the face of the future mafia boss when the gun was taken away. Correction, when the man saw Renato's expression when the gun was taken away. Renato would make sure that the horrified expression would return in tenfold.

So what if his intuition told him that Renato shouldn't take his gun to school? The man didn't have any right to take away his weapon… Or to make Renato's father to take away his weapon. It wasn't like the Vongola spawn was a fortune teller or something like that, he simply didn't have the right to do something like that and Renato would make sure that the Mafioso would be punished as soon as possible.

Renato's hands really itched for his gun right now.

Not only because of the prospect of punishing a future mafia boss and the weird feeling of having the knowledge that he was defenseless, not that Renato would ever be completely defenseless but that was how he felt at the moment, but also because of his dilemma that was causing him headaches.

And Reborn wasn't the only one who suffered from his dilemmas and weapon withdrawals.

"Just tell us what is wrong, kora!" The blonde shouted in the middle of their break, having felt enough of the angsty, yet threatening mood around the raven haired male.

"Shut up, moron. I'm having an inner dilemma here." Renato growled at the blonde.

"An inner dilemma should be kept inside your mind." The green haired teen supplied while pushing his glasses up. "You, however, keep on muttering curses which are more than disconcerting."

"Just tell us, Renato." The dark green haired girl added. Renato growled once again when his classmates simply didn't allow him brooding on his own and sent a small glare at the three nosy teens.

"You want to know what is wrong? Fine, just let me think in peace after I tell you."

"…I'm waiting." The green haired teen shrugged, clearly not interested in the matter. He was probably the only person in the classroom who didn't actually seem to care. The younger Sinclair sibling and her hooded friend would have cared as well, if they weren't used to the broodings of one Renato Sinclair.

After having spent so much time around the hitman in training, the two younger kids seemed to be immune to the heavy presence that sometimes hung around the raven haired teen. Their hushed conversation was peaceful and undisturbed by the heavy silence of the others, though none could really hear where they were talking about. The two were almost literally in their own world. That, however, wasn't the case for the other occupants in the room who were all trying to hear the words of the brooding teen.

"…couples only café."

"Excuse me, I didn't catch that." The green haired girl blinked. "What about this café?"

"I said that Renata wanted to go to that café, but it is a couples only café." Renato growled. "Satisfied now?"

"So… what are you going to do, big brother with a sister complex, kora?"

"Shut up." Renato growled, wishing that he had his weapon to shoot the moron now. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for the blonde, the gun was still in possession of Renatus Sinclair and not in the possession of Renato.

"He does have a point, you know." The uninterested, but amused, green haired teen piped in. "Knowing you, you would rather kill the prospective… dates than help your sister find one. But that wouldn't help her to get in the café."

"I can't trust anyone with Renata." The elder Sinclair sibling huffed, not realizing that he never denied having a sister complex.

"I could take her out."

The heads of the four classmates turned to the owner of the voice who sat in the row behind them and their expressions changed into different emotions each. The girl looked positively thrilled. The blonde looked sly. The uninterested teen got a glint of interest in his eye. And the older brother… cursed the future ninth boss of the Vongola for being the one who was responsible for his lack of weapons right now.

"I mean, I wouldn't mind accompanying her to the café." The Chinese transfer student corrected himself when he saw the expression of the older Sinclair. Although Renato didn't really know it, his sister complex was known throughout the entire school already. He would have known if someone told him… but no one dared to in fear of angering the Sinclair.

Renato was a Sinclair and an angry Sinclair… let's not mention that. The rumors about the corpse was still circulating after all these years of the 'incident'. The legends based on it were both glorious and horrifying.

"You?" Renato managed to say without sounding like a homicidal maniac. Just barely though. "_You_ want to take Renata to a couples only café?"

"If it means that I can get the chance to know her and to spend more time with her?" The transfer student smiled nervously. Little did he know that… alright, almost everyone who saw the small smile that graced the face of Renato Sinclair knew about what the teen was thinking.

_Hell no._

"Why?" Renato asked, sounding surprisingly serene at the moment.

"I kind of like her-" The Chinese answered, falling for the false sense of security but stopping when he realized that he ran into the trap. Unfortunately, he stopped a tad too late. "N-no not in that way, I mean-"

"You… _you_-" Various thoughts ran through Renato's mind as his hands tried to reach his absent gun. _You're finally showing your true colors, Pedophilic pervert. No way that you're getting close to Renata now. God, where is the gun when I need it? Vongola spawn, you're next after I kill this Chinese!_

"I didn't mean it like that, your sister is only five for god's sake. I don't like her that way!"

_And now she isn't good enough for the pervert?!_

"I mean- If she was a bit older then-"

_So that is what you're planning- _

"C-calm down, Renato… what are you planning to do with that pencil?"

_Gun or no gun-_

But Renato never got the chance to say any of his thoughts out loud as he felt the soft tug on his shirt. Renato looked down and his scowl softened into a softer expression when he saw his younger sister smiling at him with the sparkles in the background. She really needed to learn how to control her unconscious mafia seduction.

"Are you ready to go?" She asked.

"Go to where?"

"That café I told you about, Reborn, kufufufu." The girl laughed happily. "I told you that they had a special event for siblings today, didn't I?"

"Oh…" The suddenly speechless class looked at the black haired girl and almost groaned at the anticlimax.

At least everyone survived today, thank their lucky stars.

Or the future Vongola Nono who managed to convince Renato's father to confiscate Renato's gun. The man would still suffer for what he had done though, even if he did safe the day somehow.

**Remember what I said about a ship which would have sailed if Renata didn't die? Yeah, I ship them too, but only if Renata is physically older than… at least five. Putting that aside, I really wanted to include the inheritance arc from the anime too, but it didn't work out with the flow of the storyline. That's why instead of making it a real chapter, I'm considering making it an extra chapter to show what would have happened if the inheritance arc did happen. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	58. Chapter 58

Chapter 55: ghosts of the past

Mukuro still spared me some glances of worry while I hid myself from the three Millefiore members. While Bluebell and Zakuro seemed to dislike me more than they admitted, , it was Kikyo who really worried me. He was the kind of analytical person who would drag me to Byakuran himself if I wasn't careful enough, so I preferred hiding myself in mist flames right now.

I waved back at the Vongola mist guardian without his Vongola ring despite knowing that I was still invisible and continued watching the battle from my tree branch. The chaos would have affected me more in other occasions, but I still felt the mental exhaustion that came from using too much illusions while I was still in prison.

My stay in the Vindicare prison wasn't the first time that I was in a prison, but the Vindice surely knew how to keep an illusionist inside unlike the Italian policemen from four hundred years ago.

Before I unconsciously began reminiscing again, another wayward attack was evaded, but this time not without losing my balance. In my panic I felt my body becoming weightless for a small second before it crashed on something that was both soft and hard at the same time.

"Ouch, old-timer, couldn't you have fallen somewhere else?" Fran complained monotonously.

"Sorry, Fran." I chuckled softly as I sat up, careful not to hurt the green haired man. My pounding heart calmed down with the slow breaths I was taking and I felt my legs steadying as I calmed down. The memories of being thrown from the roofs by Cozart flashed through my mind in the small moment of falling. How funny that this particular memory out of all the memories that I had flashed by. _Too funny_, I smiled as I watched the frog hatted male straightening his uniform.

"Next time, fall for the pineapple master or something. That way, no one but the little big boss will complain." He muttered under his breath as he sat up as well. "Never mind, his guard dogs will be complaining as well so you could fall for either. Just not on me."

"I get it, I will be careful when I fall down next time." I laughed. Fran's sometimes confusing speeches never failed to amuse me. "Am I still invisible, Fran?"

"As transparent as Hope is evil. Pure evil." Fran nodded.

"Great."

"Do you mind me joining you in being lazy? I want to take a break from fighting."

"It's not called being lazy, I'm waiting for Yuni." I huffed. "But join me whenever you want."

"Great." Fran smiled. The rare peaceful expression on his face actually surprised me more than the fact that Fran's voice didn't sound emotionless with that single word.

"You know, when you smile you kind of look like your grandmother." I couldn't help but pointing out with a small grin. It was a rare occasion that I could see the resemblance between Fran and his grandmother since he looked more like his mother, but when he smiled I like that I could see the little girl I had known once upon a time.

"I already know that you're an old-timer, old-timer. There is no need in rubbing the fact in my face." Was my reply, once again monotonous.

"Aw, the emotions suit you." I pouted. Fran probably instinctively knew that I was pouting underneath the thin layer of mist flames, since I felt him poking me despite me being still invisible.

"Shut up, old-timer."

If it was possible, the two of watched the chaos in peace while our friends and comrades fought the three Millefiore members. Or at least, we watched as peacefully as we could without feeling conflicted at the violence. Fran could easily watch these kind of scenes because he was used to them. He had to be, since he was a Varia officer. I however… was probably still influenced by my mental exhaustion.

"Are you sure that you aren't being lazy, old-timer? Because I'm pretty sure that you're dozing off."

"I'm not." I protested, though the words came out weaker than I wanted to admit they did. "I'm waiting for Yuni so I can deliver the last box that needs to be delivered. Then, my role in this entire war is done and then I will be as lazy as I want to be."

"The last box?"

"You know, the one you're holding onto?"

"Ah." Fran nodded. "About that…"

"Watch out!" I warned, diving away myself before I was hit by the potent amount of storm flames. This time they were Zakuro's and just as destructive as I remembered them to be.

"Thank you." Fran gave me a thumbs up and I suppressed the urge to laugh at the sight of the wavering form of his hat. I didn't know that it was an illusion since I never paid attention to it, but knowing that Fran was still rebelling against the Varia even if he joined him was funnier than it should have been. Maybe the mental exhaustion was worse than I initially thought.

"You're welcome." I replied. "What were we talking about again?"

"About how lazy you are, I think?" Fran frowned, trying to remember our conversation topic. "But then again, I'm being lazy as well."

"I guess that we can afford to be lazy because this is the calm before the storm?" I mused. The sentence was barely finished when the colors of the sky changed from the usual dawn colors to electric green.

"Calm _before_ the storm?" Fran echoed. "Are you sure about that?"

"Not anymore." I admitted hesitantly. Both Fran and I looked at the green sky for another few seconds before we both started to move. "Can you give me some backup?" I asked the man when the illusion that made me invisible was dispersed.

"But only if you give me backup as well." Fran nodded.

"Deal."

We shared one last glance before we ran in the same direction, out of the forest and towards the electrical presence. While running next to me, Fran grabbed one of the boxes on his belt and I mirrored the action. However, I forgot that all of my boxes were either in Chrome's, Mukuro's or Fran's possession and my hand grabbed for air instead. The feeling of momentarily defenselessness made me slowdown my pace, but Fran pulled me back to reality.

I nodded at the man and ran a bit faster again. Even if I didn't have my boxes, I still had everything else. I hoped that my experience and illusions only were enough to survive though, I doubted that Fran would appreciate his backup being useless.

The air thickened as we approached the clearing, the air was even saturated with the heavy feeling of lightning flames and I stopped running when I recognized this feeling. I had only felt this feeling once before and…

And then I saw the green man.

"Byakuran." I breathed in disbelieve. I had seen the green being in front of me destroying my Famiglia and my home in the distance. I knew that Byakuran had something to do with it… but… I didn't expect something like this. Hell, I didn't even know what to expect from the ball of lightning flames to begin with, but _this_?

The familiar face seemed to react on my voice, no matter how soft it sounded. The man turned his face towards me without stopping in his path, but I saw recognition flash by in his eyes. If the resemblance between the creature in front of me and the man who was once a friend wasn't enough to catch me off guard, then this flash of recognition was. I thought that he was mouthing something while I was trying to understand why he looked like Byakuran, but the flashing light blinded me before I could decipher what he tried to say.

Fortunately, something small and fast pushed me out of the way before I could get hit by the light and I was heisted back on my feet before I could even fall by my backup.

"Aren't you lucky that you asked me for backup?" I heard Fran ask as I stared into the clear indigo eyes of my savior. It took a little while of running, this time in the opposite direction of the green being, before I remembered how to talk properly again.

"…Fran, why do you have Chrome's box animal?" The said animal blinked its eyes innocently at my incredulous tone and bended backwards, just to continue sitting on my head as if nothing was wrong. The familiar action would have calmed me down if I didn't see grin that was supposed to be seen on the Cheshire cat only on its face. Also, the heels of the boots that the white cat was wearing felt pretty uncomfortable on my head.

"You gave it to me." Fran said as he continued pulling me to somewhere in the forest.

"No, I didn't." I frowned. "I gave it to Muku- No you didn't."

"You were in a hurry." Fran shrugged, seeing that I was starting to realize what was going on. "Don't blame me for taking my chance."

"You disguised yourself as Mukuro, just to get Yuurei? I honestly don't understand why you like her so much, no offence Yuurei." I exclaimed softer than I wanted to.

"Come on, old-timer, Yuurei is _the _puss in boots." Fran protested. "I mean, she still lacks the hat and the rapier, but she has a cape instead!"

"This is not the time to be talking about capes, Fran! If you have the boxes that was supposed to be given to Mukuro, where is the box I need to deliver to Yuni?"

…

It all happened so fast that Chrome wasn't quite able to understand what was happening when the beam of light blinded her for a moment, but when she opened her eyes again everything was different. Where Mukurowl was flying before, was a familiar man with longer hair than she remembered him to have. The white owl was perched on his head, aiming his mismatched eyes at the same thing where its original master was looking at. Chrome blinked, twice, before she realized why they were staring at the space where Hope was floating above.

"Hope?" She asked, her voice trembling in doubt when the ashes of the former parachute didn't do anything. Honestly, Chrome wasn't sure why she said the name out loud as she saw how the light sucked the flames out of the machine and how the machine burnt down.

"Hope?" Mukuro echoed. Chrome looked up at the man who was sending puzzling glances at the ashes on the ground and half wondered why he sounded almost annoyed. Maybe a bit disbelieving as well. "If that is Hope, then- How long are you going to stay dead, Hope?"

"Mukuro-sama?"

"Don't worry, my dear Chrome, Hope… can't die." The blue haired man nodded almost as if to convince himself.

True to his words, it didn't take long before the grey ashes turned white and reformed itself into something else than a parachute. The ghostly appearance of the floating creature did somehow resemble the general shape of a parachute, but it was undeniable that it wasn't a parachute.

Was that what she thought that it was?

"Good to see you too, Hope." Mukuro greeted, not without an even stronger hint of annoyance in his voice.

"B-but-" Chrome stuttered, not sure whether she understood what just happened or even what to think of what just happened.

"This, my dear Chrome, is Hope." The pineapple haired man sighed while gesturing to the floating creature. "Zero's box animal… But if _you_ are in possession of Pandora's box, what is the box that I'm holding onto?"

…

I wasn't sure where Fran was leading me to, I wasn't even sure if the man knew where he was going himself, but I would never have expected to get a warm greeting from the small group of people in the grass field. Too warm maybe.

"Zero." Yuni cried while she hugged me close with Bianchi.

"Can't breathe." I gasped.

"I don't care, Zero-chan." Bianchi stated. "It's your fault for disappearing. Where did you go?"

"I'll explain everything later, but I want to get some air first." The women released me from their chokehold and I took a fresh breath of air before I could continue talking. "Sorry, Yuni, but-"

"Don't worry about that Zero." The girl who looked a bit too much like her ancestors smiled. "I know where it is and it is safe."

"Of course you know." I smiled. Yuni always knew. I moved to greet the others in the grass field as well, but as I turned away from the smaller mafia boss, her pacifier lit up.

"W-what's happening? Everyone?"

"What is going on, old-timer?" Fran asked me as everything around us erupted into chaos. Not only did Yuni's pacifier lit up, she also started to float in some kind of a barrier towards- is that Byakuran in the sky?

"I-I don't know." I answered. "Maybe it has something to do with the tri-ni-sette?"

"The what?" Fran asked, but I never got the chance to answer him as I suddenly felt a weight on my shoulder.

"What are you waiting for baka-Zero? Run after her."

"Yes Reborn!"

...

Hope saw me before I saw him and promptly tackled me to the ground. With the combination of his speed and mine, the fall hurt a little more than it should have. "Hn!"

"Yes, I missed you too Hope." I groaned, trying to sit up again while rubbing my throbbing head.

"You shouldn't be caught off guards so easily, Zero." Reborn smirked. The hitman baby had jumped off my shoulder before I was hit, of course, and landed safely without pain unlike me. He seemed a bit too amused to see me being tackled by my own box animal, or maybe he was just amused to see what my box animal actually was.

"Hope catches _everyone_ off guards." I retorted.

"Hope? A Turritopsis dohrnii, I see, it actually suits you." Reborn nodded. Yes, he was definitely amused to find out what Hope was.

A Turritopsis dohrnii, or an immortal jellyfish. Seeing how the aquatic creature 'reincarnated' before it gets the chance to die properly… well, I could see why Reborn would think that it suited me. The question however is, how Reborn knew that Hope was an immortal jellyfish.

Normally these creatures had a size of a few millimeters, but like me, Hope used illusions. He _loved_ to use illusions. Using my flames as a kind of fuel, Hope disguised himself as whatever he wanted to be. He especially liked his form as a parachute since everyone used parachutes these days.

It was the perfect cover up for his pranks.

The last thing left in the original Pandora's box might have been hope instead of an evil being, but the Hope that resided in my Pandora's box was pure evil in his own way… Which was actually one of the many reasons why Hope's box was nicknamed Pandora's box.

And right now, Hope was just a jellyfish. Not even an existing one but a mix of several kinds. So how did Reborn know that it was an immortal jellyfish?

Why was I even wondering about this? Reborn was _Reborn_, he knew _everything_. Or at least, almost everything.

My breath hitched in my throat when I realized that I was actually talking to Reborn, not _my_ Reborn but still my dead brother. He was standing right next to me and he was actually alive. Before, when he ordered me to run, I ran on instinct but now the realization dawned onto me, I realized what I was feeling as I looked at the fedora wearing baby.

I had really missed him.

"Are you alright, Zero?" Reborn asked and I needed to swallow the heavy feeling in my throat before I could talk again.

"I'm so-" I almost apologized, but I stopped myself before the dammed emotions could break lose. This wasn't the time for heartfelt reunions, not yet.

"We can talk later." Reborn agreed, understanding what I was thinking by simply looking at me.

"Thank you, Renato." I smiled genuinely. In return, I got a small smile from Reborn that made his face look less stressed than before.

"Hn."

"Sorry, I was distracted." I apologized to the immortal jellyfish. "What did you say?"

"Hn."

"…Wait, let me repeat that. This is the box that was supposed to be in Fran's possession, but ended up in Muku-chan's possession... and you stole it from Muku-chan to bring it back to me?"

"Hn."

"Hmm…Thank you, I guess?" I smiled hesitantly. While Hope might be pure evil, his evilness was useful. Now, I only needed to do one last delivery.

…

With the small delay, it took us a little longer before we reached the place where Yuni was taken to by the orange barrier. Honestly, I didn't realize that our short conversation lasted long enough for the barrier to reach its destination just a few trees away from where we were.

Faster than I should have, I turned around the last tree and stopped. Not because I wanted to, but because the pure force of sky flames pushed me back as I walked straight into it. Reborn jumped off my shoulder again before I stumbled backwards, entering the wall of sky flames without troubles unlike me. If it wasn't for Hope who was floating behind me and stopped my fall, I would have fallen down again and hard.

"Zero?" Reborn asked, his eyes slightly widened when he saw the look in my eyes, but I couldn't find myself to care all that much. The flames, they were pushing me away, preventing me from going forwards and for a reason unknown, they were pulling me forwards at the very same time.

I could faintly hear other voices in the background, sounds of recognition or maybe of worry, but once again I couldn't find myself to care all that much. All what mattered was right in front of me, behind the sky flames that pushed and pulled me like it couldn't decide what to do with me.

I didn't know what to do anymore either.

I felt the flames hesitate in holding me back when my hand almost touched the invisible wall of sky flames. They recognized me, or at least my flames and gave me one last push as if to ask me not to go forwards. The push was weak though, still hesitating like I did. Like the flames recognized me, I recognized the unique pull. I knew who wanted to prevent me from entering the last battlefield.

Did I actually want to go forwards?

It was when I felt the sky flames stop their hesitation, when I realized my answer.

Yes, I did.

This time, I wasn't aware that I walked forwards, walking through the invisible wall of sky flames without being pushed back. I felt my mist flames dance happily within me, knowing that the sky flames let me through and smiled at the ghostly appearance that floated within the big orange dome.

"Alex?" Other shouts of recognitions, sounds of worries faded into the background when I heard that voice. He was all what mattered now and my flames couldn't have agreed more with me. He had accepted me again, but-

No.

"No, Giotto." I whispered, my smile fading a little at the realization. I wasn't Alexis Chevalier, not anymore. I wasn't Alex, I _couldn't_ be his Alex. Not after what happened in the past, not after all what happened after that. I wasn't Alex anymore, but I was Zero. "I'm Zero Estraneo."

"I see." He nodded before disappearing. His flames didn't disappear though, I felt them next to me as soon as his visual appearance disappeared. "But I missed you."

The looks that the other ghosts send me were mixed, but there was one look that they all shared. Recognition. Their ghostly images were only able to appear because of the Vongola rings, they were pure dying will flames and they could see beyond the living. The flames of others, no matter how disguised they might be, they were never hidden from the dead.

Not for them.

"And so do I." I whispered when their images started to fade along with their flame signatures. "I missed all of you too."

…

Yuni was afraid of death, but she wasn't afraid to admit that. What happened after dying? She heard so many different stories from different people, but she couldn't see it herself. Her mother once told her that there was only one thing after dying: peace. Another, however, told her over and over again that hell was real. Six of them. Yuni liked the former prospect more than the latter.

The girl looked up from the pacifiers in her hands, storm, cloud, rain, mist and lightning were present, but the sun…

The sun was where it belonged.

Yuni turned her attention to the world outside the orange wall, to the distraction that held the attention of Byakuran too. A small, heartbreaking and regretful smile, it looked so fragile but when Yuni looked in her eyes, she knew that it was all but weak. Unconsciously, the smile was mirrored on her own face, albeit a little more hesitant but good enough.

Mist flames danced around the ring, a slow and rueful dance that would have made Yuni cry on every other occasion. Now, it only made her smile less hesitant.

She had heard many stories of what came after death, but what Zero told her had always been her favorite. According to the white haired woman, after death was another life. A chance to meet new people, talk to old friends, smile with new family, laugh with old family. When Yuni looked at the older woman, _and _older_ she is_, she could see the happiness and melancholy whenever Zero talked to her friends and Reborn.

Zero never needed to tell her out loud, but she did after meeting Yuni. Like Yuni knew Zero before actually meeting her, Zero knew Yuni before actually getting to know her. Like Yuni had the knowledge of the future, Zero had knowledge about the past. Zero knew that she could see the future and Yuni knew that Zero lived for many times.

And Yuni loved the idea of meeting old friends, family, new friends and new family after hearing the stories of the albino woman.

Even if it hurt sometimes.

The smile of the older woman broke up, mouthing the words that should have frightened her, but didn't. "Are you ready?"

Yuni nodded.

And the smile returned. Yuni knew what Zero's plans were from the beginning and she knew that the plan was as Zero-esque as possible despite it being planned on a whim. All the boxes that were delivered, hers and her students', were only distractions. Sure, they helped the children from the past in their battles, but it was _this_ box what truly mattered.

When Zero opened her hand after opening the last box that needed to be delivered, the yellow pacifier gave a shine that appeared as mischievous as the plans originally were.

…

**Omake: moonlit memories**

"You're not supposed to be here." Giotto said, painfully aware that his tone was saying the exact opposite. If the blonde heard the tone, she didn't show it.

"Kufufufu, just as you're supposed to be sleeping Giotto." Was his reply and Giotto felt the dull ache in his heart flaring up when he heard the laugh. Unlike the usual amused tone, this almost fragile laugh urged him to pull the smaller body closer to console her, but he didn't.

"I thought that-" He began bitterly while he walked to the chair next to his tutor.

"Don't worry about Alaude." She smiled, guessing what Giotto was thinking about. "I made sure that no one can find out that I sneaked out of prison. Although I have to admit that it is too easy to escape."

Giotto felt his heartbeat speed up when the name of his cloud guardian was said with a tone that his tutor would only use for the platinum blonde and tried not to look in the undoubtedly warm eyes of the woman next to him. Instead, he stared at the clear liquid in the glass that reflected the moon that shone through the window.

"I wasn't worried about him, Alex."

"I know."

No, she didn't. she didn't know how worried he was, not about his capable cloud guardian but about her. Two weeks, it were only two weeks since he saw the back of his tutor leave the Vongola mansion with his cloud guardian and Giotto was already overwhelmed by the pressure of the current events. Overwhelmed by the worries of the woman who became so much more than just his tutor.

"Sorry." He muttered.

"Hmm?"

"It is my fault that they all found out who you are." Giotto apologized. "I knew that no one was supposed to find out that you are that Alexis Chevalier and yet, I went ahead and revealed you in front of all the civilians, policemen and even my own guardians."

"Kufufufu, does that mean that you didn't know?" Alex chuckled, filling the moonlit room with the sound of amusement that sounded reminiscing for reasons unknown to Giotto. "Your guardians already knew, but no one had the knowledge that the other knew."

That made Giotto look up at the woman next to him in something akin to surprise. He regretted the action immediately when the dull pain in his chest flared up again when he saw the familiar glint in her eyes. Mischief mixed with a certain fondness that almost flawlessly hid her pain. Giotto knew that everyone else would have been fooled with that look, but _he_ couldn't be.

"I'm sorry for making you face your family." He added, wincing at the venom that he heard after the word 'family' left his lips. Normally, family was one of the main reasons for his happiness, but Alex' family… was an exception. Alex was thrown away by them because of her inheritance and now, she was hunted for exactly the same reason.

"It's not your fault." Alex sighed.

"It is."

"It's not."

"It's too."

"It's not."

"I'm not going to start this childish game with you, Alex." Giotto scowled. He tore his eyes away from the eyes of his tutor when he saw the flash of hurt in them. "I made your disguise useless in front of your family and now you're arrested. How could it not be my fault?"

"Look at me." Alex demanded.

"Alex I-"

"Look at me, Giotto." She insisted, forcing his head to look at her with a strength in her hands that was gained through harsh training. Giotto wanted to avert his eyes, but his intuition told him not to look away from the dark blonde.

"I'm looking." He breathed. In the light of the moon, Alex' eyes seemed even more mysterious than they were in the light of the sun. While the sun truly did show the clear honey color of her eyes, it was the light of the night what changed the clarity into something more intense.

"Good." Alex nodded and she changed. Not that she looked any different, but she didn't look the same anymore. Right now, she wasn't Alex, but Alexis Chevalier. "Look at me and tell me that I was recognized because of you."

He couldn't. The Alexis in front of him, no matter how much she looked like Alex, was unrecognizable and yet exactly the same.

"Teacher taught me that the subtle illusions are the best." Alex whispered. "And I agree. Disguises like the ones I use make me unrecognizable, but they do not change me, Giotto. It was my own fault that I was recognized, not yours. No one should have been able to recognize me with my illusion still up."

"I understand." Giotto whispered back.

"Kufufufu, good." This time, the laugh didn't make the pain in his heart flare up. Instead, it made his heart flutter a bit faster.

"You need to go back." Giotto managed to say, though his voice claimed the opposite again. He pulled his head out of her grip, but couldn't look away yet.

"I know." Alex agreed, once again Alex instead of Alexis. "We can't bring Alaude's job in trouble."

"That's not what I mean." Giotto muttered under his breath. "Alaude is probably worrying about you too right now."

"Hmm, why would he? I left the prison without being seen and I made sure to leave an illusion of myself."

"Not in that way. You are aware that Alaude cares about you right? And with care I mean, _care_."

"Alaude?" Alex choked in a half disbelieving laugh and half amused snort. "He only cares about his jobs and his sky."

_That's not true_, his hyper intuition protested, flaring awake. Giotto knew that this wasn't the case and he knew it longer than he wanted to admit. Alaude might have been the first guardian to realize that Alex was Alexis, the one who was labelled as a criminal by her family for stealing their money. As a police officer, Alaude should have turned her in immediately, but he didn't and there was only one explanation possible.

"He _cares_ about you." Giotto insisted.

"That makes me feel a bit better before I go to face him." Alex chuckled. "I'll see you later, Giotto."

"See you later." Giotto agreed, lost in thoughts when the disguised woman left the room. His hyper intuition flared again, urging him to say something else before she was gone but he couldn't find the will to move.

Besides, what was left to be said?

It was only when he was laying in his own bed and staring at the ceiling when he realized what he wanted to say. What he had wanted to say a long while ago, but couldn't for several reasons. Fear to hurt his cloud, it being 'not the right time', distractions, work. How difficult was it to say three words?

"I love you." Giotto whispered to his ceiling, knowing that it wouldn't reach Alex but still feeling better after saying it out loud.

**Hey guys, doubleyy here.**

**Before I say anything plot related: sorry for the late update. People who read my other fanfic (And the A/N of its latest chapter) already know that I'm suffering from a minor case of writer's block, but I guarantee that the next chapter will appear much faster than this one! Alright, we're nearing the end of this arc and as you could have noticed, I'm already starting a bridge to the next arc with this chapter. There're still may questions left unanswered, but everything will be answered in the two other bridge chapters if everything goes as planned. **_**If**_** everything goes as planned, there will be a MukuroxZero moment next chapter (rejoice/sorry shippers) and more explanations next chapter as well. I realized that this entire arc is actually a kind of puzzle, now I'm rereading it myself. Bits of information appeared way before the arc began and other bits of information hasn't appeared yet. For example, who realized that Hope was Zero's box animal? This was one of the things I had planned since a very long time ago and I left hints of it, scattered throughout the entire arc (Pandora's box was one of those hints, if you look up the myth you can probably find out why). Another matter that was scattered throughout the entire arc was the sun pacifier matter. Now, before I start giving spoilers, on to the review-replies!~**

**I have many suspicions that there will be more Fon in the future, xenocanaan.**

**I'm shipping the as well, SakuraLuck, but I know that the ship never sailed and it pains me to know that (maybe in another universe (or extra chapter once upon a time) they would have gotten together). And the green haired girl would be a certain white mushroom hat-loving woman with a flower tattoo. Guess who it is with these hints ;).**

**Dramatic scenes, Nicole NightLock? Actually -this part is omitted because of spoilers- so yeah, dramatic dying scene… **

**Now that was the reaction I was aiming for, ADDBaby ;P.**

**You weren't far off with the six legs, hachinonana (because tentacles), but there was also another reason which will be explained in one of the future chapters. Zero and Fon will meet once they're all back in the past, but probably not in the next arc.**

**She has, actually, Tsukiyomi-Hio. Several times even and at least one of these lifetimes is important for the plot~**

**The next chapter will be the last chapter of the future arc that actually takes place in the future, but there will be at least two more chapters before the next arc begins. Also, an extra chapter about 'what would have happened if the inheritance arc from the anime did happen'. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


	59. Chapter 59

Chapter 56: of tears, hugs and changes

"I thought that I would never get away from them." I muttered softly to myself as I allowed myself to be visible again. As I watched the fading remains of my mist flames disappearing, I wondered how they actually caught me to begin with. I was pretty sure that I had been invisible enough to escape them, but I never expected them to use heat detectors to find me. The one who gave them that idea- actually, it was probably my own fault that they were able to capture me.

After being forced to lay down on a mattress and waiting until my wounds were healed, which actually meant trying to convince people of the fact that I healed faster than the average human, I managed to escape the Vongola hospital…_ After being hold captive for a few days._

The Vongola healers were definitely trained to keep illusionists on arcobaleno levels in their beds, it took me too long to escape a single bed and a building full of trained professionals.

I _almost_ regretted giving these trained professionals pointers when I didn't know that _I_ was going to be hospitalized by them. Almost, because I knew that they needed the training to be able to heal Mukuro properly and that guy was a menace when he wanted to be. The drawback was that they knew all the escape routes that I could have used thanks to that training.

Or _almost_ all of them.

The successful escape was a small victory compared to the trouble I had to go through to attain it, but at least I managed to run away unlike many other mists who were hospitalized before me. The poor Vongola members were still prodded at while I was free to go wherever I wanted to go. Not that I could run _everywhere_ because I knew that the healers would come after me once they find out that I was gone. So I decided to escape to the one place they wouldn't expect me to be. Not to the remains of the Neo Estraneo base, not to the green house in Nanimori, not even to the Vongola main base or the cliff… but to somewhere five hundred meters under the ground.

The weird round underground machine was as impressive as I imagined it ever since I heard about it from Shoichi, I hoped that it was as sturdy as he claimed it to be as well. In this weird round machine my friends were literally stored away until the past versions of my friends were sent back to their own time after all, and I wouldn't want something to happen to them. Not now the arcobaleno returned from death and the future version of Reborn will be returning, as soon as the past Reborn returned to his own time with the other past versions of my friends.

The war was finally over and everything will be fine again. Once everyone is back to where they belong, everything will be just as how it was before. Only a few things did not change… and it left me weaker than I would like to admit that I was.

Yuni, the sweet girl, had to sacrifice herself for us and Gamma, the loyal fool, followed her so she wouldn't be afraid to die and the Neo Estraneo...

I may have been living for around four hundred years already but I couldn't help but feel like a helpless kid, knowing that Chris, Seth and most of the other members of my Famiglia were gone now. They had always been there in this life and now they were gone… it felt empty without the chaos to look forward to whenever I went to the base. It felt empty, knowing that even when I would return home that no one would be there to explode stuff or create even more paperwork for me.

"Great, now I miss them again." I sighed before tearing my eyes away from the round machine and trying to distract myself from my current mood. One would think that I would be stronger after four hundred years worth of experiences which included the memories of the death of many people who I loved, but I could never get used to the death of my loved ones. And I hoped that something like that would never happen.

It would be sad if it did.

"So we can get back to the past with this machine?" I heard someone ask as they approached the spot where I was standing. I looked away from the round machine and smiled when I noticed Verde, Shoichi and-

"… Everyone is saying their goodbyes to the people in this time?" I heard Tsuna wonder while I was running towards the small group of unsuspecting people.

"Yes, we made sure that this kind of thing will never happen again as well." Verde answered nonchalantly. Something that sparked hope within me and made me speed up my pace.

"Does that mean that this future is averted?" I asked hurriedly, distracted from my original goal. "Does that mean that this all will never have happened and that... everyone- no one died?"

"That is right, Primo." Verde smirked before glancing at the hitman baby and sighing. He turned away and pulled Shoichi's shirt as a hint to follow him. "You can thank me later for it, when _we_ actually have the time to talk. I'll be sure to visit your Famiglia soon."

"That is… great." I sighed almost numbed in relief when Verde and Shoichi were almost out of sight. The events in this future will never happen, which meant that my uncles and my Famiglia will be alright. Gratefulness and hope washed most of the sadness away and I could finally feel my body relax again. I never noticed how tense I was, even after the war has ended and most of my wounds were healed. I should have known that my emotional wounds were far worse than I thought that they were.

"…Hieee?! Zero?!" Tsuna exclaimed his delayed reaction as he turned around and saw me standing right behind him. I blinked blankly when I heard that and couldn't help the huge, goofy and genuine smile from appearing on my face, because of a combination of the relief that still overwhelmed me and the reaction I was given by the teen.

"It has been ages since I heard that!" I beamed while I glomped the future mafia boss. Ever since Tsuna's hyper intuition grew stronger he had been able to sense wherever I was, which meant that I couldn't hear him greet me like that anymore…

_Which is kind of sad, I enjoyed those reactions._

"Never change." I muttered as I let the crimson red blushing teen go of the hug and turned to my brother. My initial goal was remembered and the smile on my face started to tremble at the sight of the babyfied hitman.

"Baka-Zero." Reborn nodded when I approached him. He was exactly as how I remembered the baby-turned-man, my brother. Fedora, pacifier, curly sideburns, Leon, just Reborn. Renato. "Never get in the Vindicare again."

"Reborn." I smiled brightly despite the almost warning words that was said to me. This was the way he communicated after all. A soft chuckle escaped my lips when I decided that I'd rather hear these words than empty promises and that I never wanted to miss this again. "I'll try to… You… never die again, alright?"

"The same could be said about you." Reborn smirked. A comfortable silence fell as we both smirked at each other. It has been way too long since we could talk like this…

"I- No, you still owe me money." I declared as I spread my arms in an universal gesture.

"Typical." Reborn nodded before accepting the hug. How long had it been since I was able to hug my brother? It felt like ages, even though it must have been less in reality. The words I wanted to say stuck in my throat when I once again realized that he was alive. That the smell of gunpowder and coffee, the warmth of the small body in my arms and the familiar voice were real. The realization somehow did pass my mind when the war was still going on, but it never stuck and now the realization finally sunk in I felt more relieved than ever.

Reborn was alive.

Renato was here.

_Everything is going to be alright._

"Typical… But you owe me money as well." I heard Reborn mutter and I had to stifle a small sob before I ended up as a crying mess. In the end, I still ended up crying though.

"I love you, Renato." I whispered with a silent demand to never leave me again. My brother chuckled at that and leaned into the hug.

"I love you too, Renata. But you are way too emotional right now, a mafia boss shouldn't show weaknesses like that." The silent agreement was subtle, but as obvious as possible to me. 'No promises'… it wouldn't be Reborn if it was another answer. No empty promises, but I could trust him to try his best to stay with me and that was enough for me. I knew that I could trust the number one hitman in the world.

"Personally, I don't think that it is a weakness." I smirked as I let the hitman wipe some of the fallen tears from my cheeks with his small hand that I would always remember as the warm and big hand of the only elder brother that I'd ever had. The best brother that someone like me could have wished for. The smirk melted into a grateful smile and I shook my head to emphasize my words. "I actually think that I'm much _stronger_ than before because you're back, brother."

…

"Is everyone here?" Shoichi asked. "And has everyone said their goodbyes?"

"W-wait." Chrome stuttered. "I didn't have the chance to say goodbye to Zero-chan yet."

"Kufufu, you didn't notice, my dear Chrome?" Mukuro chuckled. Chrome looked curiously at the future version of the Mukuro she knew and tilted her head in confusion.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Hmm, he probably meant that I am right here." I smiled as I let myself appear out of nowhere, causing surprised gasps and funny expressions from the teens. I really missed these surprised reactions whenever I appeared out of nowhere. Why did they have to get used to it in my present time? Maybe I should leave a message to my younger self to make sure that they wouldn't get used to it.

"Zero-chan!" Yamamoto laughed when he was sure that it was_ me_ instead of another mist who liked to appear out of nowhere. Being the first one who found his voice back, he took it upon himself to calm the others down, who were still tense from the fighting. Even Lambo and Ryohei seemed to be almost shell-shocked by my sudden appearance and they were normally the loudest of the bunch. "Man, you grew taller! You're taller than me now."

"Kufufufu, not really, Yama-kun. Or at least, not compared to your future self… believe me, Yama-kun. Compared to your future self I'm still a midget." I laughed and I wasn't lying. Yamamoto was the tallest of all the Vongola guardians in this time and I was ashamed to say that my height couldn't compare to theirs. It did make me feel a bit better to remember that I was still taller than most of the girls in Japan though.

As I glanced at the past versions of my friends, I realized something that made me even more nostalgic than I already felt before. These timetravellers were really throwing me into a rollercoaster of nostalgia. "Hmm, I never noticed how small you guys actually were in the past." I flower-smiled at the timetravellers.

"What do you mean, midget?" Gokudera growled.

"Kufufufu, don't worry about it though. Most of you guys are still taller than me in the future. I mean, the height difference between Tsuna and me literally never changed." I chuckled before I turned my eyes to Tsuna. "You're a late bloomer while I was an early one, Tsuna. You have always been exactly one head taller than me, so I had no choice but to look up on you. Not that I'm complaining though, you're a great Decimo in this future kufufufu."

"Z-Zero-chan. Y-you really are safe." Chrome finally managed to splutter when I turned my full attention to her. I smiled at my adopted daughter and chuckled softly at the tears of relief that formed in her eyes.

"Kufufufu. Don't worry about me, Chrome-chan. The Vindice treated me pretty well, all things considered."

"B-but all that happened to the Neo Estr-"

"Has never happened." I smiled. I approached the girl who still had some tears in her eyes and hugged her. "You may cry, my dearest daughter, but we'll be fine. Hell, we _are_ fine right now, believe me."

"Y-yes." Chrome smiled as the tears of relief started to flow down her cheeks. "I-I can believe you."

"Kufufu, believe _us_. You will always have a family to turn to." Mukuro laughed softly, though the cheerful tone did sound a bit too forced to be genuine. I looked at the almost uncharacteristic smile and almost dropped my own smile. The worry and other emotions on his face were barely concealed. They may be hidden well enough for the others to never find out about it, but I knew him too well for that. I _know_ that look.

He was afraid that I would break down again.

Unlike most of the people gathered here, he'd actually seen my state after I saw what Byakuran had done to my Famiglia. Mukuro saw me at my weakest moment and he was afraid that everything would go down again.

"Let me guess, you were worried about me as well?" I smiled softly. I didn't have to ask to know that he was indeed worried, but I wanted to. I wanted him to know that he didn't have to act stronger than he actually was. That I was fine. That I would be fine.

I let Chrome go and wiped some of her tears away before turning my full attention to my older student. The fake smile was still on his face, but it was more confused than worried now. Probably because I was smiling genuinely. "Don't worry about me." I stated bluntly. "This future has never happened and even if it did happen, I will be fine."

"Really?"

I wasn't aware how long Mukuro's mismatched eyes stared intensely into mine, but I refused to look away. We both refused to. Mukuro because he was looking for the slightest hint of a lie and me because I wanted him to understand that I was fine. That I would be fine.

"Ahem… can I interrupt?" Shoichi asked almost awkwardly, causing me to break the eye contact to look at the slightly blushing redhead.

"Kufufufu, go ahead Sho-chan." I chuckled.

"…Right. I will let that slip for now." Shoichi sighed. "So, you will have to leave the Vongola boxes here when you go to the past."

…

"Okay. We are going to start the time warp!" Shoichi announced.

"I will see you guys in the past." I waved at the past versions of my friends while I walked to Mukuro, who was standing further in the back so he won't be accidentally transported to the past as well. "I'm going to miss them." I smiled when I was standing next to him.

"I'm not. They will return soon enough, too soon even." Mukuro nodded. "Especially the cow. I'm sure that he'll be back in a few days."

"I know, but it is nostalgic to see them this small and cute again." I smiled as I smiled at the group of the past that was now gathered at one point. "You were cute as well, back then."

"Oya, are you saying that I'm not your cute student anymore?" Mukuro asked with fake hurt.

"Hmm, I'd rather say that Fran and Chrome are my cute students. You are more handsome than cute nowadays." I played along after waving to the group that was about to leave. "Besides, my definition of being cute is that I have the urge to protect it. You are strong enough to actually protect _me_ now… though I'm definitely not losing to you in a fight anytime soon. Not at all even, if I can help it kufufufu."

Mukuro stared intently in my eyes with a glint of amusement and a silent promise of a challenge when I said that and asked a soft and almost unexpected question. "Are you sure that you are alright?"

"I am." I smiled softly before realizing that I answered almost automatically. I hid a small wince in a shrug and corrected myself before the other mist worried even more about me. I knew that he would be even more worried with that answer otherwise, even if he didn't need to be since I honestly felt like everything was going to be alright now. "Now this future has been prevented, I will be."

"Really?" Muku-chan hummed absentmindedly like he was still trying to decide what to make of my words. For a second, he looked like he was trying to consider something, but that look was gone in an instant after he saw the genuine smile that was still lingering on my lips. "If not, I will make sure that you are."

"Kufufufu, thank you." I chuckled, grateful that our relationship hadn't changed at all even after all what I had made him go through in this war. Not all of them were my fault, but he still was dragged along with my plans and... well, I was glad to find out that he was still willing to look out for me… Which actually made me think about my situation. I liked to think that I would be alright as soon as everything is over, but was that really true? The horrible memories of a war and everything related to it will still linger in my mind and…

"I will take on that offer then." I smiled after thinking about it for a little longer.

His mismatched eyes widened a little bit at my words and Mukuro froze. A few seconds passed before the man managed to unfreeze himself and shaking his head as if his mind wasn't quite able to process my words, all without having his intense stare wander from my eyes. For a small moment, he looked exactly like the boy whose fear for the dark created the oppurtunity for Mukuro and me to meet in an illusion long ago, but then he smirked and the boy was once again the man who he was now. Before my mind actually processed what he was doing, Mukuro leaned closer to me while pulling me closer to him by my waist at the same time.

"Then I will make sure that you will be alright." Mukuro whispered while suddenly he cupped my chin with his free hand and-

...

When Zero said that this horrible future will have never happened, Mukuro could finally understand why she was able to smile like that again. It was a rare non-sparkling smile that was practically seen glowing with happiness and warmth and not a smile that Mukuro would expect to see on his teacher's face after all these hardships. Not after that breakdown...

Mukuro was glad that she was able to smile like that again.

"If not, I will make sure that you are." Mukuro nodded with a suggestive smirk. The smirk with the not-so-hidden intent should have made Zero smile or shake her head in exasperation like she used to do before everything went down, but Mukuro didn't receive the reaction that he expected to get. Mukuro had meant it like a half-joke and half-wish as he usually did, but he never thought to see the young woman actually considering his words.

In the small moment of agonizing silence, Mukuro somehow managed to take in every feature of Zero that he had to miss for… far too long. Even after the war ended they didn't have the chance to see each other too often in reality, especially considering that they both needed to recover and the fact that the Vongola healers were better in keeping an eye on illusionists than anyone would expect.

Mukuro regretted letting Zero help with their training, but at the time it was simply an excuse to see her more often. Now, the Vongola healers were too skilled to his liking, all thanks to the woman next to him.

Almost everything was exactly as how he remembered Zero from the last time he saw her, from the clear violet color of her eyes to the now longer curls of white hair that framed her face. Not that he minded the longer hair, it made her look younger and he reminded Mukuro of the good old times. How she was said to resemble that bastard was a complete mystery to him. The look in Zero's pale purple eyes were warmer than Byakuran's would ever be and the snowy white curls were softer in both color and texture.

Honestly, Mukuro almost felt bad for comparing his dearest teacher to that piece of dandruff. They were nothing alike.

"I will take on that offer then." Mukuro faintly heard Zero say while he was thinking, but the faint words echoed loudly through his mind like thunder that left his mind blank, paralyzed, at spot. His eyes widened at the positive response and wondered if his chance was greater than he estimated or that he was simply _hoping_ again.

Suddenly he felt like he was much younger, when he met Zero for the first time in that clumsy illusion. At the time where he simply didn't want to trust the voice in his illusions because his fear for betrayal. Now, however, he felt the same fear for a reason which was different but painfully the same at the same time. Mukuro had found many opportunities in his younger years, when he still lived together with his teacher in the household of madness. Plenty of opportunities in which he could have made his feelings known to Zero, but he still doubted himself.

Was he really allowed to hold these feelings for someone who did so much for him while he did close to nothing for her in return? Zero had always been there for him, even in her absence, the memory of her voice seemed to urge him forwards. In a way, he owed her a lot and maybe too much, but Mukuro couldn't have cared less about that. What he cared about, was that he cared about Zero before even knowing who she actually was. Before he actually met her in reality and before he even confirmed the figment of imagination called Zero was _real_.

His intuition, although a lot weaker than his boss', convinced him that Zero was real though and he had never so thankful for listening to it before. Now, however, he was doubting his mind. Could he really trust the voice in his head which urged him forwards?

Because yes, he loved her. More than he wanted to admit because it could have been a weakness. He didn't want to see his dearest teacher as anything but that voice in his head and the light in his darkness of his youth... in the beginning. When did that feeling start to shift? Was it when he met her and got to know her in reality or even before that? When she was still a part of his imagination?

_Or always_, Mukuro realized. As a young boy, the only positive thing he had were their meetings in his mind. It soothed his pain and brightened his life on that hell. He came to love the voice and what it taught him, before he actually met Zero. The woman who taught him everything. But what good had he done for her? Bring more chaos to her life? Selfishly taking as much of her free time as possible?

Those doubting thoughts were however quick to disappear when he looked at his teacher.

For a moment there was… _something_ in her eyes that sparked hope, and more, within him. The almost unidentifiable emotion in Zero's eyes disappeared as fast as it appeared, but it was enough to spur Mukuro on and make him forget about his doubts for now.

Everything that happened afterwards felt like a blur, though Mukuro was strangely aware of every action that followed. His left arm found its way around Zero's waist and pulled her closer. Then, his free hand was raising to where he had wanted it to be since so long ago, tipping her head and making sure that she wouldn't escape now.

"Then I will make sure that you will be alright." Mukuro whispered before pulling the smaller body closer and almost chastely leaning forwards to allow their lips meet.

A small voice in the back of his head noted how soft her lips were and she still smelled like chocolate despite knowing that she couldn't have drunk hot chocolate while the Vongola healers held her captive, but the majority of his brains were too busy with memorizing every single sensation to think properly.

Only moving to press his lips a bit firmer to hers, Mukuro realized that this was not how he pictured their first, no, second kiss. Like the first, this kiss was unexpected. Spontaneous. Chaste, but warm and he enjoyed every single moment of it. Seconds felt longer and yet shorter as he savored every moment of the small and almost innocent action.

And yet, Mukuro knew that this action was anything but innocent.

The kiss could change _everything_ in their relationship, even if Zero did return his feelings in the end. And that thought sparked hesitation again, even though the spark was small it still made Mukuro fear for the reaction of his teacher. What if Zero didn't feel the same? What if she would run away? What if she rejected him?

But despite his initial fear when Mukuro involuntarily pulled back, he could only smile contently the pleasantly vibrant blush on his teacher's face. Somehow, Mukuro couldn't see anything but the beautifully surprised expression on Zero's face and his hesitation and doubt were slowly being replaced by another, stronger, emotion. Mukuro's content smile turned into an even more genuine smile as he allowed his fingertips to brush longingly over the blush on Zero's cheek.

What if Zero would reject him?

_Then he would make sure that she will accept him, no matter what._

…

I woke up with a huge headache when the earth started to shake violently. I didn't notice that I was sleeping, but the memories that surely couldn't come from anywhere but a dream- no, nightmare flowed in my head like long-lost memories that I never head.

Or were they really memories from the future?

The images I started to recognize as memories of the future, the pain, confusion, determination and embarrassment flashed through my mind again. When the memories ended with a certain memory of a kiss, I tried to hide my embarrassment by hiding my face behind my hands even though I was the only one in the basement. The memory- no, it wasn't a memory. It couldn't be. It was all a _dream_. There was no way in all existing hells that Mukuro would k-kiss me.

My breaths started to calm down a little with the denial and the cool material on my hand was cooling down my face which was still burning with a fierce blush... _cool material? _My head snapped up at the realization and my eyes widened in horror when I saw the undeniable proof that the dreams _did_ happen in the future. A future that didn't exist anymore thanks to what happened... Or should have happened, but didn't need to happen anymore because it was prevented by my friends.

The jellyfish-shaped ring on my right ring finger gave a mysterious, borderline evil, gleam and I decided that the ring definitely wasn't here before I locked myself up in my personal basement. Besides, the ring reminded me too much of my box animal for that. From the design to the presence that the small piece of jewellery had.

"H-Hope?" I asked hesitantly, still half-hoping that this all could be a terrible joke or a dream. The said jellyfish happily complied and appeared from the ring. The indigo colored immortal floated in front of me and I hid my face in my hands again. It wasn't a dream. It all happened… or will not happen because what was supposed to happen would stop it from happening. Or maybe I was still dreaming now. "Please pinch me and wake me up."

Hope lifted one of his tentacles and touched stung me in response. Hard. The sudden spark of pain rushed through my arm and I jumped up in surprise. Not only because of the painful sensation, but also because I realized that I was really awake. Inevitably. Once again, I hid my face behind my hands.

"Thank you, Hope." I muttered from behind my hands. If Hope was here… I stood up from my seat and opened the drawer where I put the box that the future Tsuna gave me. It was gone. The box that the future Tsuna once gave me was gone and Hope was right behind me.

My head snapped up as the realization hit me and turned towards the door of my room in the basement.

_My Famiglia. _

I turned around and ran up the stairs to the living room where my uncles were before I locked myself up to finish my paperwork. I had no hesitation as I threw the door open that separated the basements from the living room and froze when I saw my uncles sitting on the bench, casually discussing the merits of the teleportation device with Dimitri. The three men didn't seem to be shaken up by the earthquake that woke me up and they were, probably because they were used to the earth shaking because of one or another experiment back in Italy.

"T-they are fine." I muttered. They were here. They were alive. They were safe. That future has been averted. _We are saved._

I managed to take a few steps forward before my legs gave in and I collapsed. Chris and Seth immediately turned their heads away from the television and rushed to me like I had called them. Dimitri had a slower reaction, but still gave me worried looks while my uncles were fussing about me.

"Are you alright, Zero-sama?" Seth asked.

"What happened?" Chris frowned. I shook my head in response and tried to smile though the tears won.

"Y-you wouldn't believe it." I managed to chuckle between the sobs. "Everything is fine. It is fine now."

"It wasn't a dream byon." Ken breathed as he and the others rushed in the living room as well and saw me half-sobbing on the floor.

"It was real." M.M. whispered and Chikusa nodded in agreement.

"Zero!" Chrome shouted as she rushed in and hugged me, joining my crying mess without missing a beat. "I'm back."

"Kufufufu, welcome back my dearest daughter." I chuckled as I wiped some tears away and hugged the girl back. "You did well in the future."

"Kufufu, what about my performance?" Mukuro asked and I couldn't fight down the blush on my face when certain memories were recalled.

"You. Are. Fucking. _Dead_." I heard Reborn announce darkly as he suddenly appeared from the kitchen and caused the usual chaos that followed him everywhere. And yet, even though it was chaotic now, I couldn't help but smile at the sight of my babyfied brother.

He was alive.

They were all alive.

_Thank you, Yuni._

…

Some people would say that running away was cowardly, but personally I called it procrastination. I hated procrastination because paperwork would multiply if I procrastinated instead of doing it properly, but in a situation like this I thought that it would be justified.

Very justified even.

Because I was confused that I- correction, that my future self didn't seem to mind the kiss. Only the memories of the war and the crucial information related to it were transferred to my present self, which meant every information that was not related to the war was lost. And that was at least nine years worth of information. So I… was left with the undeniable fact that I- my future self did_ not mind_ being kissed by Mukuro.

_And yet again, I feel so conflicted._

Although it was almost undeniable that my future self didn't mind the kiss, something made me- _the future me_ feel conflicted. It was almost like I coulnd't decide whether to accept Mukuro's feelings or... something entirely else. I couldn't put the confusing feelings into words, _hell_ I didn't even understand my feelings! What happened in the future to make me feel like that? What happened with our relationship? And who could blame me for being unable to face Mukuro properly after remembering something like this?

The worst thing about this situation was the fact that Mukuro and I lived under the same roof in Nanimori. The place that I, and especially my future self, started to view as a place that I could call home. And home meant security, something that wasn't provided to me in Nanimori at the moment. So in the end, I ran to the only place that had always been like a home for me in every single life that I had before.

The cliff.

Watching the sunset there always calmed me down, especially if it wasn't an illusion. I knew that I wouldn't have been as calm as I was right now if I had to take the plane to Italy, if I had to sit for hours just to escape to the cliff. Luckily enough for me, we had a teleportation machine at the house in Nanimori. A teleportation machine which was easily fixed with some memories from the future and even easier destroyed after I arrived in the main base of the Neo Estraneo.

I was planning on destroying it anyways, seeing how dangerous the device actually was in the future.

Anyways, without the flight, I only needed to avoid my Famiglia to run take the fastest route to the cliff and calm down at the familiar sight of the sunset. Everything in the cliff was how I remembered it to be... There was just one small difference between the place in reality and the one on my mind and memories. This time, I wasn't alone in the cliff that not too many people had access to. The sheep that slowly but surely invaded the cliff added their sound to the noise of crashing waves and brought the place truly to life with their playful and yet lazy gazes.

"So you finally decided to visit me?" An old but familiar voice shouted from somewhere between the sheep. A hand was waved somewhere in the crowd of sheep that hid the body of the owner and I couldn't help the nostalgic smile from appearing on my face, despite still being confused about my feelings.

"I think so, Tal!" But then I remembered about a certain incident with my diary. "We need to talk about privacy and how we shouldn't allow everyone to read my diary though!"

"Glad to see you too, Al."

…

**Omake: one more step into the nonexistent future**

He saw Mukuro running his fingertips over the blush and almost shouted out in anger, keeping his anger inside before he would regret it. Knowing his mist guardian, he would really regret it if he didn't control himself. This wasn't where they agreed on. Hell, he didn't understand why he was still making agreements with that Mukuro, especially since he knew that the not-criminal wouldn't keep his promises if he could profit from it.

He almost _ran_ forwards, restraining himself in the last second to keep his diginity like Reborn had taught him, to snatch the smaller body of Zero away from the Mukuro's hold. At first, the smile on the face of the blue haired man simply froze on his face. That was when the man noticed him and the frozen smile turned into a furious smirk.

"Oya oya, I see that you're awake early, _Vongola_."

"I see that you're breaking promises early, Mukuro." Tsuna smiled coldly at the man. "This isn't where we agreed on, Mukuro. No moves on Zero until everything is over, so let her go. She isn't yours."

"Neither she is yours." Mukuro retorted, giving a pointed look at the smaller body that was in Tsuna's arms and not in his own. The tenth boss of the Vongola blinked owlishly before he actually realized what Mukuro meant and looked down at the still red-faced woman.

Ah, the vibrant color actually suited her, he realized and his intuition flared awake. Mukuro had taken the first step ahead despite their agreement not to do anything until everything was over. A huge leap, actually and Tsuna's intuition shouted to take a step himself.

A small one.

"She isn't." Tsuna agreed reluctantly, hesitantly letting Zero go as he said it. "But only if Zero disagrees with that."

**Hey guys doubleyy here. **

**...This chapter did not go how I planned it to go. I did plan a MukuroxZero moment, but I did not plan the kiss or anything leading towards it. The chapter should have been covering the end battle and the goodbyes would have been in the last part of the chapter, but it seems that my hands and my head do not think alike. In the end, I kind of liked how the chapter ended up though. The omake was anot afterthought, but I think that it fit, even though this will be a event in the future that the timetravellers will not remember.**

**Not exactly, ****Tsukiyomi-Hio. You'll have to wait until the next archive to find out the circumstances of the omake. And Chrome's box animal is the boots wearing cat that Fran likes a bit too much.**

**Killing the readers is the job of a writer, right Madam3Mayh3m? And I got the feeling that I will continuing doing so kufufufu.**

**Thank you for the support, ****mysterious guest number 2. You do have a point with Giotto and Tsuna being the most selfless people existing and I do believe that they deserve happiness as well, but I'm the kind of writer who ships Zero with both Mukuro and Tsuna... I know, I'm bad with making decisions. **

**You made me realize that I keep on shipping a former life of Zero and a canon character and that every ship keeps on sinking because she died before it could sail, Nicole NightLock. I ship Giotto and Alex too, so why am I doing this to myself :').**

**I don't think that there won't be a poll, xxOchibixx. I'm just going to write and see what pairing is the end pairing. Who knows, maybe I'm going to surprise myself. Because of what I've been planning, Zero will meet Fon in the shimon arc or in the extra what if chapter that I'm writing. You'll have to wait until then ;P.**

**As always, thanks for the other reviews as well. It urged me to update now rather than at Mondays. ****My next update, however, will probably be delayed because of my incoming exams. Believe me, I wasn't supposed to write this chapter right now because I am supposed to be studying. Anyways thanks for reading and please review.**

**Doubleyy out.**


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